Fountain of Arethusa reopens, where the nymph Arethusa and the river Alphaeus are reunited

On August 6, 2019, the Arethusa Fountain was reopened to the public after a structural and functional intervention. Visitors now have the opportunity to admire the beauty of this enchanting place accompanied on the tour route by the voices of Isabella Ragonese, Sergio Grasso and Stefano Starna.

The path allows visitors to walk next to the freshwater mirror full of Nilotic papyrus and by aquatic animals. For millennia the Spring has been home to schools of fish once sacred to the goddess Artemis and, since more recent times, to a thriving colony of papyrus plants and a few ducks that earn it the nickname by which Syracusans sometimes call it, funtàna de’ pàpere.

For over two thousand years, the Arethusa Spring has been one of the symbols of the city of Syracuse. The waters that flow underground in Ortigia return to the surface inside, where myth has it that they join those of the River Alphaeus in a timeless embrace. It is an extraordinary myth, sung over the centuries by poets, musicians and playwrights. The story of Arethusa and Alphaeus is a story of love, initially unrequited, between a nymph and a river that begins in Greece and reaches its epilogue here, symbolizing the bond between Syracuse and Greece.

The structural and functional intervention is the first result of the enhancement project developed by Civita Sicilia with the collaboration of the Lauro Chiazzese Foundation for Art and Culture. The project, elaborated and directed for the architectural part by Francesco Santalucia, Viviana Russello and Domenico Forcellini, has seen the collaboration of the Special Educational Structure of Architecture of Syracuse and has benefited from the scientific advice of Corrado Basile, President of the International Papyrus Institute - Papyrus Museum.

Ph.Credit Vittoria Gallo

Fountain of Arethusa reopens, where the nymph Arethusa and the river Alphaeus are reunited

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