Here's two of the three sites of Tindari: The Sanctuary of the Black Virgin as seen through the arches of the old Roman basilica.
After Messina, we made a brief stop in Tindari to see its three major sights, two of them very old, one quite new. The approach to this ancient town has the typical spectacular hill climb that we had now come to expect in ancient Sicilian towns.
The old town was founded to take Spartan refuges fleeing Greece after the Peloponnese War around 400 BC. What we saw was primarily the Roman remains and the Greek Theater. Of interest to us was the remains of the Roman basilica below:
Basilicas for the Romans were, of course, large meeting halls used for all sorts of things (often at the same time) such as courts, markets, etc. Tindari also had the remains of an old Roman town (including bath) but very little was left (or at least you would think so if you've been to Pompeii where virtually the entire town except for the roofs is intact).
The Greek theater was in pretty bad shape and since we were to see many more, we weren't too interested. Our guide claims that Sicily was a greater Greek civilization than Greece itself as Sicily had 13 Greek theaters (and therefore more culture) than the Greek mainland which only had 6 or 7.
The recent addition to Tindari is the Sanctuary of the Black Virgin, built to house a Byzantine statue moved from a another church. This site attracts pilgrims twice a year despite its newness. (None of the guide books will say just how new but it seems about 10 years old.) Here's two pictures of the outside including a closeup of its top.
Inside, a mass was in session so we stayed long enough to take one picture but not long enough to see the famous(?) statue:
Next we waded on the northern sandy beach and had lunch at Capo D'Orlando, walking through the town to see the kids on their lunch recess from school. After lunch, we stopped at San Stefano, a thin town jammed with Sicilian ceramic shops. Then we were on the road to Cefalu. Please join us by clicking here.
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