Marsala
Marsala is a seaport city located in the
Province of Trapani on the island of
Sicily in
Italy. The low coast on which it is situated is the westernmost point of the island. It is best known as the source of
Marsala wine.
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Map showing the location of Marsala. |
Marsala occupies the site of
Lilybaeum, the principal stronghold of the
Carthaginians in Sicily, founded by
Himilco in
396 BC after the abandonment of
Motya. Neither
Pyrrhus nor the Romans were able to reduce it by siege, but it was surrendered to the latter in
241 BC at the end of the
First Punic War. In the later wars it was a starting point for the Roman expeditions against Carthage, and under Roman rule it enjoyed considerable prosperity. It obtained municipal rights from
Augustus and became a colony under either
Pertinax or
Septimius Severus.
The
Saracens gave it its present name, Marsa Allah, port of
Allah. The harbor that lay on the northeast was destroyed by
Charles V to prevent its occupation by pirates. The modern harbor lies to the southeast.
On
May 11,
1860,
Giuseppe Garibaldi and his "thousand" landed at Marsala and began his campaign to overthrow
Bourbon rule in Sicily as a step toward Italy's unification.
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The Church of the Purgatory in Marsala. |
Little remains of the ancient Lilybaeum (fragments of the city walls, of squared stones, and some foundations of buildings between the walls and the sea) are visible; and the so-called grotto and spring of the Sibyl may be mentioned. To the east of the town is a great fosse which defended it on the land side, and beyond this again are quarries like those of
Syracuse on a small scale. The modern town takes the shape of the Roman camp within the earlier city, one of the gates of which still existed in 1887. The main street (the Cassaro) perpetuates the name castrum.
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Florio
