Street shrines, Cefalu, Sicily.

DaireQuinlan

I was in Cefalu, in Sicily recently. Very old town, overshadowed by a pretty impressive chunk of rock 200 metres high with a probably pretty impregnable castle on top. I ended up taking a lot of pictures of these street shrines that were scattered around the town. My wife wanted to know what the attraction was, she just found them grotesque. I had to agree that was partly the attraction for me as well :rolleyes: but in addition they kind of reminded me of those (mostly marian) shrines you find in the inner city here in Dublin, and the link between deprivation and lack of education and the kind of religious symbolism found here.








Some were shut, I guess they're opened on certain feast days or festivals or something...


Some had neat movie star lighting around the outside (this one has a cool little statue of padre-pio as well if you look closely)

jonniebgood1

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

I was in Cefalu, in Sicily recently. Very old town, overshadowed by a pretty impressive chunk of rock 200 metres high with a probably pretty impregnable castle on top. I ended up taking a lot of pictures of these street shrines that were scattered around the town. My wife wanted to know what the attraction was, she just found them grotesque. I had to agree that was partly the attraction for me as well :rolleyes: but in addition they kind of reminded me of those (mostly marian) shrines you find in the inner city here in Dublin, and the link between deprivation and lack of education and the kind of religious symbolism found here.

They are the same symbols of Christianity as the ones you mention in Dublin. They are common in Sicily which is possibly more Catholic influenced than Ireland. They seem very well maintained. They were mostl likely formed in the time after Sicily was part of Italian re-unification (1861).

DaireQuinlan

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

They are the same symbols of Christianity as the ones you mention in Dublin. They are common in Sicily which is possibly more Catholic influenced than Ireland. They seem very well maintained. They were mostl likely formed in the time after Sicily was part of Italian re-unification (1861).

Yeah I know it's much the same iconography. In sicily though they seem to be shrines to individual saints, whereas in Ireland it we've always had a tendency toward Marian devotion, and most of the shrines here seem to reflect that. I'd say a lot of them are considerably older than the mid 1800's as well, Sicily has had a long and varied history, catholic and otherwise.

The third one is interesting as well because of that sign on the right, pointing off to a 'temple of Diana' which is a big megalithic construction up on the mountain overlooking the town, which of course I had to go to as well.

jonniebgood1

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

Yeah I know it's much the same iconography. In sicily though they seem to be shrines to individual saints, whereas in Ireland it we've always had a tendency toward Marian devotion, and most of the shrines here seem to reflect that. I'd say a lot of them are considerably older than the mid 1800's as well, Sicily has had a long and varied history, catholic and otherwise.

Daire- Believe it or not the Saint/ saviour Salvador depicted in many of these shrines was only killed in 1857. The bottom shrine I think is from much more recent than that with the Roman numerals MCMXCVIII I think translating as 1998, perhaps it was restored then but I think probably the date shows its construction.

Edit: I like the photos by the way- particularly the second one, More interesting than the average holiday snaps. I should have stated that given the forum this is.

DaireQuinlan

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

Daire- Believe it or not the Saint/ saviour Salvador depicted in many of these shrines was only killed in 1857. The bottom shrine I think is from much more recent than that with the Roman numerals MCMXCVIII I think translating as 1998, perhaps it was restored then but I think probably the date shows its construction.

Hah. That would suggest a post 1857 construction date all right. Ok, I'll hedge my bets and say that SOME of them show signs of considerable antiquity

-edit-

Plus, I have no idea how that angry face got stuck on that post. I was posting from my phone though, probably clicked something by accident ...

EyeBlinks

Was walking through the market area in Naples, where there are loads of these and there in the middle, I kid you not, was a shrine to Maradonna :P

jaansu

EyeBlinks wrote: »

Was walking through the market area in Naples, where there are loads of these and there in the middle, I kid you not, was a shrine to Maradonna :P

I guess that was post 1990, which was when he helped napoli to the Italian championship. They hold him in very high regard in those parts.