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 According
to legend, Erice, son of Venus and Neptune, founded a small town
on top of a mountain (750 meters above sea level) more than three
hundred thousand years ago. The founder of modern history--i.e.
the recording of events in a methodic and chronological sequence
as they really happened without reference to mythical causes – the
great Thucydides (~500 B.C.), writing about events connected with
the conquest of Troy (1183 B.C.), says: "After the fall of
Troy some Trojans on their escape from the Achaei arrived in Sicily
on boats and as they settled near the border with the Sicanians
all together they were named Elymi: their towns were Segesta and
Erice."
This inspired Virgil to describe the arrival of the Trojan royal family in Erice
and the burial of Anchise, by his son Enea, on the coast below Erice. Homer (~1000
B.C.), Theocritus (~300 B.C.), Polybius (200 B.C.), Virgil (~50 B.C.), Horace
(~20 B.C.), and others have celebrated this magnificent spot in Sicily in their
poems. For seven  centuries
(XIII-XIX) the town of Erice was under the leadership of a local oligarchy, whose
wisdom assured a long period of cultural development and economic prosperity
which in turn gave rise to the many churches, monasteries and private palaces
which you see today.
In Erice you can admire the Castle of Venus, the Cyclopean Walls (~800
B.C.) and the Gothic Cathedral (~1300 A.D.). Erice is at present a
mixture of ancient and medieval architecture. Other masterpieces of
ancient civilization are to be found in the neighborhood: at Motya
(Phoenician), Segesta (Elymian), and Selinunte (Greek). On the Aegadian
Islands –theatre of the decisive naval battle of the first Punic
War (264-241 B.C.) – suggestive neolithic and Paleolithic vestiges
are still visible: the grottoes of Favignana, the carvings and murals
of Levanzo. Splendid beaches are to be found at San Vito Lo Capo,
Scopello, and Cormino, and a wild and rocky coast around Monte Cofano:
all at less than one hour’s drive from Erice.
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