La cultura inglese e l’interesse per il patrimonio architettonico e paesaggistico in Sicilia, tra scoperte, evoluzione degli studi e divulgazione

Abstract

e will trace the evolution of an encounter between two cultures, the English and the SiSicilian culture, which, at a time of political and social change, discover the classical world and the Arab-Norman architecture. The enchanted charm of Sicily and its imposing and melancholic nature was crossed for two centuries by the exodus of an English world that will share the eternal romanticism of it throughout Europe, and is also represented by the exploit of publications requested and produced by the Anglo-Saxon world between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. John Ruskin arrived in Sicily in 1874 to discover the nature and the architecture of the island. A comparison with the English travellers who described Norman architecture before him is fascinating; it shows how much the previous travel literature guided his choices, influenced him, and how much the personal visiting of such great monuments impressed him: «every clef is surmounted by a Moorish, Saracen or Norman architecture completely new to me».