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Temple of Hercules

In 1834 the Antiquities and Fine Arts Commission of Palermo undertook the first restoration works on the Temple of Hercules, also known as the Temple of Heracles. 
The discovery of a headless statue piqued the commission’s interest in the site to such an extent that they appointed the provincial architect Saverio Bentivegna to work alongside the local delegates from Girgenti. Bentivegna’s reports provide an image of a temple that was “completely ruined”,  so much so that at first he claimed he was incapable of producing a cost estimate for its restoration. As we can glean from the notes of the Girgenti Prefect, the way these “venerable ruins lie on the ground” was due to “the effects of the earthquake” and because it had been “raised to the ground” by the Carthaginians. As it turns out, only one of the eight columns that lay on the ground had survived these calamities. He beseeched the Commission to rebuild the eight majestic columns of the temple “certain that it would be for the benefit of the area and of Italy”. But it took until 1923 and funding from Sir Alexander Hardcastle for the restoration to take place, enabling us to admire the columns as we see them today. 

Temple of Jupiter

The Temple of Jupiter, or Temple of Zeus, is an important example of the different approaches that have been applied over the years towards Agrigento’s archaeological site. 
In the words of the custodians one can witness the profound rift between their missions as devout protectors of the “sacred monuments” and the attitude of those who abused these ruins. The area where the temple stands was, for example, often chosen by herdsmen to graze their cattle. In an account drafted by the Royal Custodian Raffaello Politi we learn about his indignation against a particular herdsman and his herd of “oxen that devastate these venerable Ruins”. This episode drove him to request weapons for the custodians, as these clashes with the “Girgenti shepherds” were so regular and serious. 
Other documents report that “those sacred ruins admired by the entire world” had been turned into a lowly inn or, as the custodian Pasquale Rizzo Pinna writes in a letter to the Girgenti supervisor, a residence for a family of goat herders. 
 

Temple of Dioscuri

The Temple of Castor and Pollux, or Temple of Dioscuri, as it is known in Italian, stood in the southern part of a vast complex of sacred areas, known as the Sanctuary of Chthonic Deities. It’s current appearance is the result of a reconstruction carried out by the Sicilian Antiquities Commission which took place between 1836 and 1852, which used parts of buildings from different periods. 
To this day the name of the temple is considered a conventional title: from the early days of the excavations, its association with the two argonauts was immediately questioned. Among the first to raise doubts on this attribution was the provincial architect Saverio Bentivegna, who reported to the Girgenti Prefect that the floor that had been unearthed by the digs did not belong to a temple, but was instead “part of some other public building, and possibly a forum” seeing as, with reference to a saying by Cicero, “not far from the Temple of Jupiter Olympian there was the forum”. In another account of the works performed on the temple of Jupiter, Bentivegna suggested that the capitals and the column shafts that had been recovered beneath the floors of the building effectively belonged to the Temple of Castor and Pollux. 

Temple of Demetra

The growing fascination for classical antiquities fuelled the illicit trafficking of historical relics, which were sold to private collectors or even to the king on payment of a reward.
When a plundered statue of Proserpine was recovered in 1869, the then secretary general of the Ministry for Education, Pasquale Villari, urged the Girgenti Prefect to apply the decree that called for the seizure of goods that had not been reported and had been removed from the site illegally. As we read in the words of the secretary, the implementation of this law was essential to fight the ignorance of those who believed these objects to be “res nullius”, or not subject to ownership of any kind.
Another item that was removed from the Temple of Proserpine and Ceres, known known as the Temple of Demetra was a headless statue of Proserpine that was found by a team of Calabrian labourers while working on the land of a Cavaliere Giambertoni. The workers found the statue in a tomb, laid out like a burial, inlaid with gold and silver, and they shipped it to Nicastro, in Calabria. 

Pietro Griffo Archaeological Museum

In 1867 a vase was recovered and delivered to the Municipal Museum of Girgenti. The Minister for Education requested that the Girgenti Prefect deliver the item to the capital, based on a Royal Decree of 1863 which required all antique artifacts found in Girgenti by the Antiquities Commission be delivered to the Museum of Palermo. The Girgenti Municipality, in this instance, opposed this ruling, claiming that the vase had been found by chance and for this reason had been consigned to the Municipal Museum. The Minister termed this reasoning “municipal arrogance to be redressed”, and the sole fact of labelling some “hovel” as a Museum did not justify this claim. 
In spite of these clashes, the Museum soon began to expand its collection, thanks to purchases of historic relicts by the Municipal Council from private collectors. Furthermore, during a trip to Agrigento, the British councillor William Gregory met the director of the Girgenti Archaeological Museum, who had voiced his desire to set up a collection of coins from the ancient city of Akragas and the Roman Agrigentum. Owing to his passion for Agrigento’s antiquities, and the will to contribute to the growth of the new Museum, the British traveller donated a copy of the Akragas coins from the British Museum.