RESTORATION AND EMBELLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA DEI GRECI FROM THE NORMAN PERIOD TO THE BOURBON.

Abstract

The history of the restoration works and of the "embellishment" works carried out in the church of santa Maria dei Greci in Agrigento crosses a temporal interval that goes from the Norman period to our days, in a continuous research carried out by scholars, who strongly believed in the enhancement of the monument. The church - built on the remains of the doric temple dating back to the second half of the 5th century BC.C. - it is probably built during the Byzantine period between 395 - Edict of Theodosius - and 596, then before the Muslim conquest. The Byzantine architectural structure of the church has undergone, over the centuries, important transformations that have determined what today is its current conformation. The examination of the period, which spans almost seven centuries - from 1100 to 1750 - during which some important architectural transformations and stylistic completions have been made to the building, is the object of this argument.