2-995-945 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Revolution in Sicily - View of Castrogiovanni - from a sketch by our special correspondent, 1860. This city, the ancient Enna, is situated in the intendancy of Catania, on a tableland in the centre of the island, four thousand feet above the. sea...It is healthy and well supplied with water...Our Special Artist, who, in his march with a column of the national army through the centre of Sicily, arrived at Castrogiovanni on the 10th [July], took a sketch of the town (which we here reproduce) from a ravine which divides it into three parts, and in the rocky sides of which are hollowed deep grottoes that served the Saracens in ancient times as dwelling-places...There are ruins everywhere at Castrogiovanni - ruins of Romans, Saracens, Normans, Germans, and Spaniards, besides a general ruined appearance of the whole town, which two centuries ago numbered 90,000 inhabitants, while now it scarcely has 11,000 or 14,000. To all those who are in search of one of the finest panoramas in the world, and to those who want, as it were, to take in Sicily at a glance, I cannot give better advice than to come here and ascend the tower of San Piso'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.