DESCRIPTION:

We offer for sale a luxury property in Sicily, in the city of Syracuse.
The property comprises several ancient buildings once belonging to a noble family, including an elegant period ristic villa with over ten thousand meters of land.
What characterizes and makes the entire property unique is its location between two of the city's most important ancient stone quarries, excavated by the ancient Greeks who founded the city.
From these stone quarries came the blocks that contributed to the construction of the city's most important temples, including the Temple of Athena, the Temple of Artemis, the Temple of Zeus, and the Temple of Apollo.
The presence of this ancient 19th-century farmhouse has given its name to the stone quarries of the same name, known as the Casale delle cave (House of the Caves), which represents them. Over the centuries, the rock quarries have changed names but have retained their names to identify each one. It is precisely these ancient stone quarries that have dictated the boundaries of this property of over one hectare, which features several terraced areas.
This splendid ancient farmhouse, actually a luxurious stately home, was built on the ruins of an even older Roman villa, which influenced its construction. Originally, this villa had barrel vaults and all the interior walls were painted using fresco and secco techniques. Of these precious paintings, created by artists of the time, most of the vaults and only a few on the walls are still clearly visible.
The location of this property is unique. From the foot of the southern ridge, the ancient Greeks left a strip of rock where today's farm road climbs to the top of the same rocky ridge.
The villa stands at the highest point of the property, almost as if to emphasize its dominant position over the entire expanse of land. It's no coincidence that the Normans built a stone watchtower here, later conquered by the Spanish, which still stands today on the eastern side, marking one of the property's boundaries.
The luxury villa features several rooms, many of which feature beautiful original floors, including a reception room with a central hall and other rooms, including bedrooms and hallways, a large bathroom, a large kitchen, a covered outdoor patio, additional utility rooms, a baking room, and two additional rooms, one with a bathroom on the floor below.
Further down, not far from the villa, is a charming annex consisting of a bedroom, a living room with kitchenette, and a level terrace overlooking much of the property. It also includes a storage room with driveway that can be used as a garage for at least two cars.
This villa absolutely deserves to be restored to its former splendor, while still retaining its charm. It is one of the very few ancient villas still standing in the city of Syracuse or in Sicily.
With a proper renovation project, partly conservative and largely modernized, including a new and more efficient layout of the interior spaces, this property would regain its status as a prestigious villa, of refined beauty and rarity due to its exclusive location in these truly evocative places. Here, you can breathe in the history of twenty-eight centuries: strolling through the exclusive grounds, you can look out and observe these caves from above, a priceless view where one can only imagine that the stolen stone was excavated by human hands almost 2,800 years ago, and that same stone was then used to build the ancient Aegan Temples and the most important buildings that made the city of Syracuse one of the two most important powers in the Mediterranean, along with Alexandria in Egypt.
The next owner of this luxury villa will have much to tell their guests: observing the vertical walls of the caves, you can clearly see the carvings left by tools pushed by human hands in Greek times. You can also see rock caves, votive shrines from the Roman-Byzantine era, and other curiosities.
This luxury rustic villa was also depicted graphically by 19th-century travelers on the Grand Tour, who visited Italy's oldest cities and immortalized it forever in paintings.
This luxury rustic villa in Sicily truly deserves to be restored to its former splendor in this sun-kissed land rich in history, art, and culture.