Artemision

Syracuse


Loitering beneath Palazzo Municipale are the scant remains of a 6th-century-BC Greek temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis, as well as the modest traces of prehistoric stone huts. The best-preserved relic, however, is a medieval crypt with a row of niches once used by the schiattamorti (literally 'corpse squashers') to rest the dead while they poked and prodded all bodily fluids from them in preparation for burial.