Sir Alexander’s Eucalyptus

The Valley of the Temples is one of the great masterpieces of humanity. Located where once stood the powerful Sicilian city of Akragas, is characterized by the exceptional state of preservation of a series of Doric temples. Among almond and olive trees this place takes us back 2500 years with the columns, in some cases still intact, soaring into the sky in search of Zeus and members. A unique heritage in a strongly Sicilian landscape. Villa Aurea is a beautiful early twentieth century villa near the Valley of the Temples and built by Sir Alexander Hardcastle, an English soldier with a passion for archeology. This patron spent his life restoring abandoned temples in state of neglect. Then he had a financial collapse and sold the villa. The garden of Villa Aurea, which can be visited today, is a Mediterranean enchantment, amidst hedges scented with myrtle, rosemary and lavender, among exotic species and rare specimens, such as our watercolor, the Eucalyptuserythrocorys, perhaps the only presence in Sicilian historic gardens.

(photo) Agrigento, Landscape with the city in the distance, paper, cc 1770, Chatelet