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Erice was populated by Elimi who erected the temple dedicated to the worship of the goddess of
fertility and love. Successive rulers they named the temple to their gods, so the Phoenicians worshiped there Tanit-Astarte, the Greek
Aphrodite, the Roman Venus Ericina.
On the ruins of the Temple is still the Venus Castle, fortified during the Norman domination, adjacent to the Balio gardens dominated by
medieval towers. The city is surrounded by cyclopean walls of plant Elimo (VII sec.aC) at whose corners are located: the Norman Castle,
the cathedral (1314), which preserves the original fourteenth-century Gothic style, with the bell tower and its delicate mullioned windows
and the Spanish Quarter.
The old town has a typical medieval urban layout with squares, narrow streets and winding in which overlook beautiful flowered courtyards. Erice hosts more than sixty churches, including those of San Martino, San Cataldo, San Julian, San Giovanni Battista.
Every summer echo the medieval music to the memory retrieved by internationally renowned artists presented during the Week of Medieval and Renaissance Music.
Places to visit Museum Cordici, in whose hall is the Annunciation by Antonello Gagini, located in Piazza Umberto I.
Erice, home of the Centre for Scientific Culture "Ettore Majorana", maintains the charm of old medieval village animated by typical craft shops: finely decorated pottery, colorful hand-woven carpets, traditional sweets made from almonds and candied fruit.
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