Agrigento

Agrigento (Italian: [aridnto] ; Sicilian: Girgenti [ddnd] or Giurgenti [ddnd]) is a city on the southern coast of the autonomous island region of Sicily in Italy, capital of the province of Agrigento. As of 2025, with a population of 55,227, it is also the largest city in the province, 10th-largest in Sicily and 115th-largest in Italy. Founded around 582 BC by Greek colonists from Gela, Agrigento, then known as Akragas, was one of the leading cities during the golden age of Ancient Greece. The city flourished under Theron's leadership in the 5th century BC, marked by ambitious public works and the construction of renowned temples. Despite periods of dormancy during the Punic Wars, Agrigento emerged as one of Sicily's largest cities in the Republican era. During the Principate, Agrigento's strategic port and diverse economic ventures, including sulfur mining, trade and agriculture, sustained its importance throughout the high and late Empire. Economic prosperity persisted from the 3rd to the 4th centuries AD, but excavations indicate a decline in activity after the 7th century. Agrigento is also the birthplace of several notable personalities, including Empedocles (5th century BC), the Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher, who was a citizen of ancient Akragas, and Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936), dramatist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, who was born at contrada u Càvusu in Agrigento. Parts of Agrigento were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site Archaeological Area of Agrigento in 1997, and the city was named Italian capital of culture for 2025.

Akragas was founded on a plateau overlooking the sea, with two nearby rivers, the Hypsas and the Acragas, after which the settlement was originally named. A ridge, which offered a degree of natural fortification, links a hill to the north, called Colle di Girgenti, with another, called Rupe Atenea, to the east. According to Thucydides, it was founded around 582–580 BC by Greek colonists from Gela in eastern Sicily, with further colonists from Crete and Rhodes. The founders (oikistai) of the new city were Aristonous and Pystilus. It was the last of the major Greek colonies in Sicily to be founded.

The territory under Akragas's control expanded to comprise the whole area between the Platani and the Salso, and reached deep into the Sicilian interior. Greek literary sources connect this expansion with military campaigns. Still, archaeological evidence indicates that this was a much longer-term process which reached its peak only in the early fifth century BC. Most other Greek settlements in Sicily experienced similar territorial expansion in this period. Excavations at a range of sites in this region inhabited by the indigenous Sican people, such as Monte Sabbucina, Gibil-Gabil, Vasallaggi, San Angelo Muxano, and Mussomeli, show signs of the adoption of Greek culture. It is disputed how much of this expansion was carried out by violence and how much by commerce and acculturation. The territorial expansion provided land for the Greek settlers to farm, native enslaved people to work these farms, and control of the overland route from Acragas to the city of Himera on the northern coast of Sicily. This was the main land route from the Straits of Sicily to the Tyrrhenian Sea, and Acragas' control of it was a key factor in its economic prosperity in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, which became proverbial. Famously, Plato, upon seeing the living standard of the inhabitants, was said to have remarked that "they build like they intend to live forever, yet eat like this is their last day." Perhaps as a result of this wealth, Acragas was one of the first communities in Sicily to begin minting its own coinage, around 520 BC. Around 570 BC, the city came under the c

Archaeological site data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).