Teatro Pirandello Agrigento
Luigi Pirandello Theatre is 500 meters walk from B&B Miravalle Agrigento.
Luigi Pirandello Theatre was built in 1870 by the engineer Dionisio Sciascia and the architect Giovan Battista Filippo Basile.
It's accessed through the lobby of Palazzo dei Giganti (Giants Palace), seat of the City of Agrigento, natural continuation of Piazza Pirandello (Pirandello square).
The neoclassical façade, on two levels, is characterized by three pairs of Ionic columns located on the sides of two large glass windows. In the highest part there are six bas-relief medallions depiting as many playwrights, while the first level has an arched portico with the city's coat of arms in the centre: three giants holding up three mediaval towers.In the atrium there are two plaques which commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of the Nobel prize winner Luigi Pirandello and the naming of the theatre in his honor.
Finally, a bronze bas-relief plaque depicts Dante Alighieri, the father of the Italian language and the author of The Divine Comedy; the pine tree, an important symbol of Pirandello's life story, is depicted behind him, suggesting a symbolic continuity between the two exponents of Italian literature.
The theatre's interior was decorated by some of the most famous painters of the 1800s, among which Giuseppe Belloni, Luigi Sacco and Antonio Tavella, who painted the ceiling.
One the most significant decorations was the curtain, painted by the Sicilian painter Luigi Queriau and depicting the valiant athlete Esseneto after his victory in Elea.
The work was lost or destroyed during the long closing period. In 2007 the theatrical producer Francesco Bellomo donated a new curtain made with the same techniques of the time, reproducing the original fresco.
The bust of Zeus, the bust of Luigi Filippo and the bust of Pirandello are exhibited in the foyer of the theater, toghether with two plaques commemorating the decision of the City Council of Agrigento to build the theatre and to name it after the queen Margaret (Regina Margherita Theatre).
Source: Wikipedia
