| Gibellina | ||
 | ||
| State | Italy | |
|---|---|---|
| Region | Sicily | |
| Territory | Belice | |
| Altitude | 233 m a.s.l. | |
| Surface | 46.57 km² | |
| Inhabitants | 4 028 (2017) | |
| Name inhabitants | Gibellinesi | |
| Prefix tel | 39 0924 | |
| POSTAL CODE | 91024 | |
| Time zone | 1 | |
| Patron | San Rocco | |
Position
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| Tourism site | ||
| Institutional website | ||
Gibellina is a city of Sicily.
To know
Gibellina, also known as Gibellina Nuova, was built after the Belìce earthquake of 1968 on a site that is about 11 km from the previous one as the crow flies with architectures designed by important architects. The old center, destroyed by the earthquake, was abandoned and in the eighties it was transformed into Cretto di Burri, a land art work by the artist Alberto Burri.
Background
According to some historians, founded by the Arabs in the early Middle Ages, the medieval center was formed in the 14th century around the castle built by Manfredi Chiaromonte.
After the earthquake of 1968 and the devastation, the reconstruction of the town was slowly started. However, instead of rebuilding near the ancient Gibellina, it was resumed further downstream. For the reconstruction of the town the former mayor of the city Ludovico Corrao he had the enlightened idea of "humanizing" the territory by calling several world-famous artists to Gibellina such as Pietro Consagra is Alberto Burri; the latter refused to insert one of his works in the new urban context that was being built and built on Cretto di Burri, or Great Cretto, on the old Gibellina, in memory of the earthquake that destroyed it. Mario Schifano, Andrea Cascella, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Mimmo Paladino, Franco Angeli, Leonardo Sciascia also responded to the mayor's appeal. The city immediately became an immense laboratory of experimentation and artistic planning, in which artists and valuable works renewed the urban space according to an innovative perspective. However, the city has never had a real revival and the architecture remains silent and without a concrete positive impact on the inhabitants.
How to orient yourself
Gibellina: full screen map.
The landmark of the city is the 1 Piazza XV January 1968 where the Municipality building and some installations are located. Alongside it runs the Viale Belice which ends in the Joseph Beuys square with the incomplete Teatro di Consagra.
The so-called system of squares in Gibellina is an alignment of squares surrounded by lateral architectural structures designed by Franco Purini is Laura Thermes. The system of squares includes:
- 2 Piazza Rivolta of June 26, 1937;
- 3 Piazza Fasci dei Lavoratori;
- 4 Piazza Monti di Gibellina;
- 5 Sicilian Autonomy Square;
- 6 Piazza Passo Portella delle Ginestre.
Fractions
- Madonna delle Grazie village
- 7 Ruins of Gibellina - where the old city was and today the Great Cret is located.
How to get
By car
From Palermo take the 
for Mazara del Vallo and exit at the junction for Gibellina.
From Agrigento take the 
up to the junction for towards Palermo.
From Salemi or from the opposite direction from Santa Ninfa along the 
.
On the train
- 1 Salemi-Gibellina station. It is a railway station located on the Alcamo Diramazione-Castelvetrano-Trapani line. The passenger building is closed to the public but is equipped with a canopy. There is a notice board for paper timetables and a validation machine. The station is managed remotely by the DCO of Palermo.
How to get around
The city is traffic-free, so getting around by car is easy. The presence of many works also determines the need to move on foot, which could be a valid alternative.
What see
A great way to find your way around the city and locate the works more easily is to download this pdf.
Installations
- 1 Plow, Viale Segesta. This work by Arnaldo Pomodoro represents in all respects a plow, a symbol of peasant work in the area.
- 2 Sculpture. Work of Giuseppe Spagnulo.
- 3 Spatial rhythms. Work by Carmelo Cappello.
4 Star of entry to the Belice (door of the Belice), SS 188 (on the road leading to the city). Work in stainless steel by Pietro Consagra. The work recalls the town lights that in the past were present for the holidays, but over time it has also become an identifier of the Belice valley. It is 26 meters high.
- 5 Salt Mountain (at the Baglio Di Stefano). Work of Mimmo Paladino. It is a pile of concrete, fiberglass and crushed stone, on which thirty wooden horses - recurring animals in Paladino's works - are inserted and arranged in different positions: standing or lying down. he work was duplicated and exhibited in 1995 in Piazza del Plebiscito in Naples, and in 2011 in Piazza Duomo in Milan.
- 6 The infinity of memory. Work of Costas Varotsos.
- 7 To listen (Inside the contemporary art museum). Giovanni Albanese's work represents a road machine capable of listening to the sound of the wind.
- 8 The arrow points to the shadow of an arrow (Inside the contemporary art museum). This work of Emilio Isgrò placed on a wall of the civic museum it represents two opposite arrows and the writing which is also the title.
- 9 Labyrinth, Viale Vitaliano Brancati. Work by Nino Franchina that resembles a circular labyrinth.
- 10 Fountain. Work by Andrea Cascella.
- 11 Sculpture (Inside a building). Work of Onhari.
- 12 Ceramic panel (Inside a building). Work by Hsiao Chin.
- 13 Counterpoint, Viale Federico De Roberto. This work by Fausto Melotti placed next to a pond normally devoid of water, is an installation of arrows, triangles and O's represented now as empty now as full.
Works exhibited outside the Gibellina Town Hall
The town hall exhibits a series of works in the covered gallery adjacent to the building and in front of Piazza 15 January 1968:
- 14 From Oedipus Rex "City of Thebes". A series of stylized shapes typical of Pietro Consagra.
- 15 Monument to Leonardo Sciascia. Consagra's work. This work celebrates not only the Sicilian writer but also a man of culture who devoted himself to the reconstruction of Gibellina.
- 16 Without title, Square January 15, 1968 (Covered corridor of the Municipality of Gibellina). Works by Carla Accardi. These are graphic signs on a background placed on ceramic.
- Mosaic (Covered corridor of the Municipality of Gibellina). Work of Gino Severini.
- 17 Civic tower. Tower with two wings by Alessandro Mendini.
- 18 Tribute to Tommaso Campanella. A stone solar disc of Mimmo Rotella in memory of the philosopher Tommaso Campanella placed in the center of the square.
- Stage machines (Covered corridor of the Municipality of Gibellina). Work of Arnaldo Pomodoro
- Ceramic panels (Covered corridor of the Municipality of Gibellina). Work of Nino Mustica
- Fountain (Covered corridor of the Municipality of Gibellina). Work by Slimane Khaled
Buildings
- 19 Mother church, viale Vitaliano Brancati. In 1970 Ludovico Quaroni was commissioned to design the church of Gibellina on the top of a hill, at the highest point of the town. The project was completed in 1972 together with Luisa Anversa. The geometry of the church represents a novelty, not only in the typological scheme of the building and in its relationship with the place, but also in the language for the architectural forms. The various functions are collected and distributed within a parallelepiped with a square base of about 50 meters on each side, further divided into modules and submodules, while the symbolic and geometric center of the monument is a large smooth sphere of concrete which constitutes a reference punctual of the sacred. Outside the sphere there is an open environment with a stepped theater.
- 20 Meeting, Via Monte Finestrelle. It is a monument-building built in 1976 by Pietro Consagra.
- 21 Pietro Consagra Theater. The reinforced concrete building is a still incomplete elevated block on which a road passes, in 2020 it was inaugurated after years of waiting.
- 22 Lorenzo Milton Machado's palace. Building designed by Francesco Venezia.
- 23 Church of San Giuseppe, Viale F. de Roberto, 4.
Museums
- 24 Museum of Mediterranean Plots (Baglio di Stefano), Location Baglio di Stefano, 1, ☎ 39 0924 67844, fax: 39 0924 67855, @[email protected].
full € 5, reduced € 3 (Sep 2020). 
Tue-Sun 9: 00-13: 00 and 15: 00-18: 00. It collects fabrics, ceramics, costumes and jewels used in the Mediterranean. The same building is the headquarters of the Orestiadi Foundation. - 25 Civic Museum of Contemporary Art, Via Segesta, 1, ☎ 39 0924 67428, @[email protected]. Tue-Sat 09: 00-13: 00 and 16: 00-19: 00, Sun 10: 00-12: 00. This museum includes a number of works by contemporary artists displayed in the halls and outside the building.
full € 5, reduced € 3 (Sep 2020). 
Tue-Sun 9: 00-13: 00 and 15: 00-18: 00. It collects fabrics, ceramics, costumes and jewels used in the Mediterranean. The same building is the headquarters of the Orestiadi Foundation.Outside the built-up area
- 26 Cretto di Burri (cretto di Gibellina or Grande Cretto) (take the
towards Santa Ninfa, then take the 
and then turn into the 
following the directions). Alberto Burri's great work was erected between 1984 and 1989 on the ruins of the old Gibellina. Burri designed a gigantic monument that retraces the streets and alleys of the old city: in fact it stands in the same place where once there were the rubble, currently cemented by the work of Burri. Each slit is two to three meters wide, while the blocks are about one meter and sixty high and have an area of about 80,000 square meters, making it one of the largest contemporary works of art in the world. - 27 Doors of the cemetery (Reference to uniqueness, reference to the unrepeatable). Gate of the cemetery made by Pietro Consagra. The artist is buried in the cemetery together with the former mayor Ludovico Corrao.
Events and parties
- Orestiadi. Summer. Summer festival of music, theater and exhibitions with international artists.
What to do
Shopping
How to have fun
Where to eat
Where stay
Safety
How to keep in touch
Around
Useful information
- 2 Proloco, Viale Empedocle 5 / A, @[email protected].
