Agrigento Cathedral

Agrigento (Italian: [aɡriˈdʒɛnto] ; Sicilian: Girgenti [dʒɪɾˈdʒɛndɪ] or Giurgenti [dʒʊɾˈdʒɛndɪ]) 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 in the 3rd to 4th centuries AD, but excavations show decline in activity after the 7th century. Agrigento is also the place of birth to several notable personalities, among which it is worth to mention Empedocles (5th century BC), the Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher, who was a citizen of ancient Akragas, and Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936), dramatist and Nobel Prize winner for literature,who was born at contrada u Càvusu in Agrigento. Agrigento, included among the UNESCO world heritage sites in 1997, was named Italian capital of culture for 2025.

The Battle of Agrigentum (Sicily, 262 BC) was the first pitched battle of the First Punic War and the first large-scale military confrontation between Carthage and the Roman Republic. The battle was fought after a long siege which started in 262 BC and resulted both in a Roman victory and the beginning of Roman control of Sicily.

The Archdiocese of Agrigento (Latin: Archidioecesis Agrigentina) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Sicily, Italy. The historic diocese of Agrigento was also known as the Diocese of Girgenti, and Diocese of Agrigentum. It used to be a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Monreale. A metropolitan see, the Archdiocese of Agrigento has two suffragan dioceses in its ecclesiastical province.

The siege of Akragas took place in 406 BCE in Sicily; the Carthaginian enterprise ultimately lasted a total of eight months. The Carthaginian army under Hannibal Mago besieged the Dorian Greek city of Akragas in retaliation for the Greek raids on Punic colonies in Sicily. The city managed to repel Carthaginian attacks until a relief army from Syracuse defeated part of the besieging Carthaginian army and lifted the siege of the city. During the siege, Hannibal and a large number of Carthaginian soldiers perished from the plague, and the survivors were in dire straits after the Greeks managed to cut their supply lines. The Carthaginians, now led by Himilco, a Magonid kinsman of Hannibal, managed to capture a Greek supply convoy of ships using the Carthaginian fleet, which forced the Greeks to face the threat of starvation in turn. This caused first the Sicilian Greek detachment, then most of the population of Akragas to leave the city, enabling Himilco to capture and sack the city.

The province of Agrigento (Italian: provincia di Agrigento; Sicilian: pruvincia di Girgenti) is a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily, Italy, situated on its south-western coast. Following the suppression of the Sicilian provinces, it was replaced in 2015 by the free municipal consortium of Agrigento (Italian: libero consorzio comunale di Agrigento). It has an area of 3,041.90 square kilometres (1,174.48 sq mi), and a total population of 474,493. There are 43 comuni (SG: comune) in the province.

Villaseta is a village in Sicily, part of the municipality of Agrigento, with a population of roughly 6,300.

The Temple of Olympian Zeus (or Olympeion; known in Italian as the Tempio di Giove Olimpico) in Agrigento, Sicily was the largest Doric temple ever constructed, although it was never completed and now lies in ruins. It stands in the Valle dei Templi with a number of other major Greek temples.

The Temple of Heracles or Temple of Hercules (the Roman name of the hero) is an ancient Greek temple of Magna Graecia in the ancient city of Akragas, located in the Valle dei Templi in Agrigento, Italy.The building, in the archaic Doric style, is found on what is known as the hill of the temples, on a rocky spur near Villa Aurea. The name Temple of Heracles is an attribution of modern scholarship, based on Cicero's mention of a temple dedicated to the hero non longe a foro "not far from the agora" (Verrine II 4.94), containing a famous statue of Heracles. That the agora of Akragas was in this area has not yet been demonstrated, but the identification is generally accepted.This temple is located approximately one kilometer to the west of Temple of Concordia.

The Temple of Concordia (Italian: Tempio della Concordia) is an ancient Greek temple of Magna Graecia in the Valle dei Templi (Valley of the Temples) in Agrigento (Greek: Akragas) on the south coast of Sicily, Italy. It is the largest and best-preserved Doric temple in Sicily and one of the best-preserved Greek temples in general, especially of the Doric order. It is located a kilometer east to the Temple of Heracles.

The Valle dei Templi (Italian: [ˈvalle dei ˈtɛmpli]; Sicilian: Vaddi di li Tempri), or Valley of the Temples, is an archaeological site in Agrigento (ancient Greek Akragas), Sicily. It is one of the most outstanding examples of ancient Greek art and architecture of Magna Graecia, and is one of the main attractions of Sicily. The term "valley" is a misnomer, the site being located on a ridge outside the town of Agrigento. Since 1997, the entire area has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The archaeological and landscape park of the Valle dei Templi, with its 1300 hectares, is the largest archaeological park in Europe and the Mediterranean basin.

The so-called Temple of "Hera" (or Roman Juno), otherwise known as Temple D, is a Greek temple in the Valle dei Templi, a section of the ancient city of Agrigentum (ancient Greek Akragas, modern Agrigento) in Sicily. Its attribution to Hera derives from a misinterpretation of a passage by the Roman writer Pliny the Elder, which actually refers to the temple of Hera on the Lacinio promontory near Crotone, Calabria.It was built about the year 450 BC and in period and in style belongs to the Archaic Doric period. Signs of a fire which followed the Siege of Akragas and the Carthaginian sack of the city of 406 BC have been detected. The temple was restored in the era of the Roman province of Sicily, with the original terracotta roof being replaced by one of marble, with a more steeply inclined slope on the eastern side.

Porto Empedocle (Sicilian: 'a Marina) is a town and comune in Italy on the coast of the Strait of Sicily, administratively part of the province of Agrigento. It was named after Empedocles, a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of the city of Akragas (present-day Agrigento), in his day a Greek colony in Sicily. The primary industries of Porto Empedocle are agriculture, fishing, ironworking, pharmaceuticals and rock salt refining.