Cretto di Burri and Gibellina Nuova

When I was in Sicily we spent most of the time in the studio, but we also made some time for a few cultural trips. I have already showed you the city of Salemi and the ancient city of Segesta, and today I will show you the city of Gibellina.

Gibellina was a town of about 6000 inhabitants which was destroyed in the devastating earthquake in 1968. The earthquake impacted many places all around the Valle del Belice, but only a few of them were destroyed to the ground like Gibellina. It didn't make sense to rebuilt the city in this place, so the people had to move their lives 10 km away where Gibellina Nuova was built from scratch.

It took many years to decide what should happen with all the ruins left after the earthquake. In the 90th, the Italian artist Alberto Burri gave this place new life and created The Cretto de Burri. He wanted to preserve the old city, and covered the ruins with concrete. This created a monumental artwork with many deep cracks that used to be the streets. He preserved the old city structure, and his artwork reminds us of the devastating effect of the earthquake.

Our driver for the week comes from Gibellina Nuova and wanted to show us the artwork as well as the new city. He was so excited to share the details of these places, and we could feel that he loves his home.

It took us about 30 minutes from Salemi to the Cretto di Burri. It is not so far away, but those winding roads are not easy to drive through when you have three people on board who can get carsick easily. Actually, one of us got sick (it wasn't me), and we had to stop for about 10 minutes. Luckily, after a while she was feeling better and we could continue.

Another stop was on top of the hills from where we could see the artwork. Even from afar I was shocked to see how big it is. I read about it before, but it's so different when you stand there and can see it with your own eyes.

The views of the surroundings were not too bad either...

I had no idea that Sicily had so many mountains. We explored Trapani, and I can honestly say that it's only hills. We kept going up and down all the time.

Let me walk you through the Cretto di Burri!

Its walls are so high that we were advised to stay together, so that we don't get lost. Some of us walked up a bit to get better photos, but I stayed with the rest of the group as I'm too short to get better photos anyway 😊

It's so strange to know that these were the real streets and that next to us (and under us) are the ruins of the city. I wonder how people who grew up here feel about this artwork. It must be hard for them to visit it.

Another surprise were the ever-present vineyards. Actually I wonder how often did I ever drink some wine from Sicily...

Don't forget to bring a hat as it can get hot here - it makes you feel the pain of the place. Maybe that was one of the aims of the artwork? Who knows...

You can spend many hours walking the streets, but we didn't stay long as we wanted to visit Gibellina Nuova and the dinner time was slowly approaching too.

A few more photos to give you better impression of the place...

When we all managed to get to one place again we jumped in the minibus and drove in the direction of Gibellina Nuova. As I mentioned, our driver lives in the city, so we were looking forward to see what he wanted to show us.

New Gibellina is world-known for its sculptures, mosaics and other artistic installations. There are many events organized here each year, and many artists from all over the world come to the city to showcase their artwork during many exhibitions held here too.

New Gibellina should be a city of about 10000 inhabitants, but unfortunately there are only about 3000 people living here. It turned into a ghost city or an open-air museum as people had to leave because there was no work for them and living here became difficult. Our driver told us that he is one of a few people who still have work, and he tries to help the city as much as he can. He does a lot of promotion and he also helps with the events.

New Gibellina doesn't look like any other Sicilian city. Typical city would look like Salemi with its old buildings, narrow streets and baroque decorations. This city looks like it doesn't belong here. There are wide streets, modern buildings and a lot of concrete. If you look closely you will see a big star gate in the middle of the photo. This gate is the entrance to the New Gibellina region that you cross when you drive towards the city. It is really huge.

Although I couldn't characterize New Gibellina as charming I still admired how different it is to any other place that we visited. And it's set in such a beautiful environment.

The building on the left looks like a parking garage to me, but it is a huge exhibition hall instead. There are many contemporary, postmodern and brutalist buildings and monuments. Actually, I have never heard of 'brutalist' and thought that our driver couldn't translate it properly, but apparently it is the real thing 😊

Look at those clouds...

Our next stop was The Chiesa Madre (local church). I would have never guessed it was a church if I didn't see the bell in front of it.

Behind the walls is a huge concrete sphere that symbolizes all religions as equal. However, the building doesn't only serve one purpose. It is also an exhibition hall and a party place in summer. There are places in the back that turn into bars 😊

The sphere is surrounded by an amphitheater...

Look how big it is!

We walked up the stairs to the terrace to enjoy the views. We couldn't enter the church as it was closed because somebody forgot to open it for us. We didn't have a lot of time anymore, so we couldn't wait for them to come. We saw it through the windows though. It's a modern space that could serve as a concert hall or a church depending on the audience 😊

Even the terraces have interesting shapes and I still don't know how to feel about them...

From the church we drove around the city to see as many artworks as possible. My favorite artwork installations were huge eyes of three local people (Beatrice 6 months old, Annalisa 31 years old, Vito 71 years old) that were made out of tiny photos of the people of New Gibellina. It's called 'Gibellina selfie'. Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo, so my description must be enough 😊

New Gibellina is an interesting place that you should visit when you're in Sicily. It's not going to be your typical Sicilian city, but it's good to see some thing different, and to understand why and how it was built.

Thank you for reading!

Cheers,
Martina