TRAPANI, DIOCESE OF. - Diocese and provincial capital city in western Sicily. It covers an area of approximately 1,000 km², with a population of 196,158, of whom 195,180 are Catholics, distributed across 47 parishes served by 109 diocesan priests and 53 regular clergy; it has one seminary, 13 male religious communities, and 49 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 429). The diocese is a suffragan of Palermo. The cathedral is dedicated to St. Lawrence.
The city lies at the foot of Mount Erice, facing the Aegadian Islands, and was called Drepana due to the sickle-shaped form of its harbor. It was the maritime emporium of Eryx (now Mount S. Giuliano). To this extreme tip of Sicily is linked the Trojan legend, which in its later reworking (particularly in Virgil) has Anchises dying there and Aeneas founding the temple of Venus Erycina, on whose ruins the present sanctuary of the Assumption was later built (15th century). T. was fortified by the Carthaginian Hamilcar; its waters witnessed the defeat of the Roman consul P. Claudius Pulcher. After the Battle of the Aegates (241 BC), it fell into Roman hands and became a consular city. It subsequently came under the Vandals of Gaiseric, from whom it was wrested by Belisarius. Occupied by the Arabs in 844, it later experienced Norman, Swabian, Angevin, and Spanish rule. In 1283, Peter III of Aragon landed at T., summoned by the Sicilians to the island’s throne after the Sicilian Vespers revolt; in 1535, Charles V stopped there after his victorious campaign in Tunis. From the Aragonese period onward, the city shared the historical vicissitudes of the rest of Sicily.
The date of the diocese’s establishment is unknown; however, from the time it came under Constantinople (9th century), no further records exist of T. as an episcopal see. It was reestablished by Gregory XVI with the bull *Ut animarum pastores* of May 31, 1844, carved Mazara (v.). A native of T. was Cardinal Enrico Beccatelli (12th century).
ART. – Architecture. – Suggestive ruins of Phoenician architecture are found at Motya, a small island south of the city. The oldest structure, however, is the Colombera, a fortress guarding the harbor, already existing in the time of the Elymians and repeatedly rebuilt; the main structure of what remains dates to the Norman period. Clearer evidence is found of the Chiaramontana architecture: the basilica of the Annunziata, with the appearance of a fortress on its northern side, the church of St. Augustine, and the Saturn Fountain (1342). The Fishermen’s Chapel of the Annunziata, in Catalan style, dates to the late 14th or early 15th century. Also notable are the fan-shaped arches on low pilasters found here and there in the streets (e.g., the arch of the Palazzo del Banco di Sicilia). The Mariniani Chapel of the Annunziata, the Palazzo Ciambra (Giudecca), and Casa Pilati date to the second half of the 15th century. The 17th and 18th centuries are well represented with the churches of the Jesuit College (Francesco Pinna), the Badia Nuova, the Purgatorio, St. Lawrence (G. B. Amico), and with the Cavaretta Palaces, set against the backdrop of Corso, Xirinda, and the Carmelite convent, now the Pepoli Museum.
Sculpture. – The oldest and most notable work in the city is the Madonna of T., from the school of Nino Pisano (14th century). Works from the early 17th century include the portal of the chapel of the Madonna of the Annunziata, the baldachins of the Carmine, of St. Mary of Jesus, and a triptych now in the Museum, all by Antonello Gagini.
Pietro Orlandini, a notable 17th-century wood sculptor, left a wardrobe in the sacristy of the College and another now in the Museum, as well as a Crucifix in the church of the Annunziata. 18th-century works include the bronze model for an equestrian monument by Serpotta in the Museum, the bas-relief by Ignazio Marabitti in the College, and the characteristic wooden figures of the Mysteries by Baldassare Pisciotta in the church of St. Michael.
Painting. – The most important pictorial works, though of varied provenance, are almost all gathered in the Pepoli Museum. Of great interest are the 14th-century panels from the church of St. Augustine; a *Pietà* of the Tuscan school (14th century); a 15th-century polyptych by Taddeo di Bartolo; and the *Redeemer* attributed to Tommaso de Vigilia. The Museum also features a strong representation of 17th-century Neapolitan painting with works by Salvator Rosa, Solimena, and Ribera. Also noteworthy are the canvases by Andrea Carreca, a local painter. A fine work of the Flemish school is found in the Badia Nuova. Particularly developed in T. during the 17th and 18th centuries were the minor arts: jewelry, engravings of agates and corals, and ceramics. Notable are the rich Nativity scene and the coral Crucifix in the Museum; numerous frontals, lamps, sacred furnishings, cameos, Nativity figurines by Tipa, Laudicina, and Matera, the maiolicas in the Museum and in some private collections. – See pl. XLIV.
Maria Pia Cosentino