Gibellina Explained

Gibellina
Official Name:Comune di Gibellina
Coordinates:37.8167°N 64°W
Region:Sicily
Province:Trapani (TP)
Mayor:Salvatore Sutera
Area Total Km2:46.57
Population Total:4028
Population As Of:28 February 2017
Population Demonym:Gibellinesi
Elevation M:233
Saint:Roch
Day:16 August
Postal Code:91024
Area Code:0924

Gibellina (Sicilian: Jibbiddina, Arabic: "little mount" - جبل صغير) is a small city and comune in the Province of Trapani, the mountains of central Sicily, Italy. It was destroyed by the 1968 Belice earthquake.[1]

The new city, Gibellina Nuova, was rebuilt some 11km (07miles) from the old one and it was designed by some of the most prominent artists and architects in Italy. They were summoned by Ludovico Corrao to provide works of art to the city in order to help build it up as an eccentric museum en plein air. One of them, the Italian sculptor Pietro Consagra, created a sculpture called Porta del Belice, or "Door to Belice", at the entrance. Consagra expressed on his deathbed a wish to be buried at Gibellina in July 2005.[2]

The old town, now known as the Ruderi di Gibellina (as the ruins of the city are referred to), remained just as it was after the earthquake, like a ghost town until 1985. That year the Italian artist Alberto Burri began a project to cover the ruins in concrete, while preserving the streetscape. Known as Cretto di Burri, work on the project ceased in 1989, but was finally completed in 2015.[3]

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://web.archive.org/web/20080306025845/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,837724,00.html "The Day the Earth Shook:
  2. Web site: Agenzia Giornalistica Italia news story on death and burial of Consagra . 17 July 2005 . 26 April 2006 . https://web.archive.org/web/20060426181044/http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200507161738-1121-RT1-CRO-0-NF11&page=0&id=agionline-eng.oggitalia . dead .
  3. Web site: 6 November 2015 . In Gibellina the Cretto by Burri is finished (after 30 years) . 23 April 2022 . Abitare.