Date
planning
Departures and stops
Gratteri, Villabate
Duration
Un giorno
Cost
to define
Teatro Andromeda: a jewel hanging between earth and sky
The Andromeda Theatre is an open-air theatre hanging from a thousand metres in the air, the most precious of the hidden jewels of Santo Stefano Quisquina, a small medieval village in the province of Agrigento. The open-air work was conceived by the shepherd-sculptor Lorenzo Reina, who was born and raised in a family of shepherds and pursued his dream of being a sculptor from an early age.
Details of the program:
Departure from at: planning
Lunch: planning
Return at: planning
The tour includes:
The theatre was built on the Reina family’s land, formerly a grazing theatre, now an enchanting stone theatre, surrounded by lush nature and a panorama that leaves one speechless. The work of art is the result of the fusion of Reina’s two souls, the shepherd’s soul and the artist’s soul. In fact, it is precisely where the family sheep used to graze that the 108 cubic stone blocks that make up the theatre’s auditorium now stand: it is no coincidence that stone, the material of traditional Sicilian fences, was used.
The 108 cubes appear to be arranged in an apparently disordered manner, but as you may have guessed nothing is left up to chance in this project! From above, the cubes are in the shape of eight-pointed stars and each one represents one of the 108 stars of the constellation Andromeda. In addition, the elliptical scene is made up of 365 pieces, as many as the number of days in a year.
The cavea is open towards the horizon and creates the feeling of literally being inside the landscape, immersed in a pure and lush landscape. The theatre is located at the top of a country path through the woods and wilderness, and two other marvellous works of art can be seen inside:
– Fallen Icarus, the man who escaped from Minos’ labyrinth and flew too close to the sun and fell into the sea.
– The Mask of the Word, a mask with wide-open eyes and mouth that on the day of the summer solstice allows sunlight to penetrate directly through the mouth for five minutes.
