LUIGI
PIRANDELLO’S HOUSE
Contrada
Caos, SS 115 - Agrigento
Phone
+39 0922 511102
Fax
+39 0922 602299
•
Open all days 8.00am-8.00pm
•
Walk to the pine-tree 8.00am-one hour before dusk
•
Audio-Visual material
•
flash photography is not allowed on the premises
Luigi
Pirandello Library
Via
Regione Siciliana, 120 - Agrigento
Phone
+39 0922 444111
Fax
+39 0922 602299
Opening:
monday-saturday 8.30am-1.30pm
Luigi
Pirandello’s birth-home is a late-18th century country-house
standing alone and silent in the middle of Agrigento’s countryside,
in an area known as Caos, on a hill, amidst olive-trees and oaks,
steeply sloping to the sea. The Ricci Gramittos, the writer’s
mother’s ancestors, took possession of the house in 1817
where they took refuge to escape a cholera epidemic that hit sicily.
In 1944, an explosion at a neighboring munitions-store of American
troops caused heavy damages to the house. In 1949, it was declared
a National Monument. Three years later the Sicilian Government
bought it, soon undertaking extensive restoration works at the
house and at the path that leads to the pine-tree.
The rooms, looking out on the countryside, contain
a vast collection of photographs, early reviews and autographed
editions of his early works, and posters of its major plays. The
house periodically hosts temporary exhibitions dedicated to the
writer. Since 1987, the museum has been a whole with the Luigi
Pirandello Library.
The
Luigi Pirandello Library is a multimedial centre dedicated to
the Sicilian world-famous playwright, holding a variety of documents
grouped into several categories. Some autographed documents, mostly
coming from the author’s heirs, are of high interest. The
collection counts some 5,000 pieces among letters, playscripts
and personal objects.
THE
CHAOS
“I’m
a son of the chaos”, from “Frammento d’Autobiografia”
by Luigi Pirandello.
The
birth-home of Luigi Pirandello – It was here, on the ouskirts
of Agrigento, that Luigi Pirandello was born. His house stands
secluded and quiet amidst the countryside. On top-floor is the
writer’s dwelling, now open to the public. Here, a short
documentary film on the writer’s life and career is projected
for the house visitors. The writer’s last visit to his house
goes back to 1934. But on that occasion he could not stay there,
and see it from a distance, since it had been sold.
The rooms
display written and iconographic material: family photographs,
portraits of the writer and of Marta Abba, the actress to whom
he became very close in his last years. A short path right of
the house leads to a pine-tree (irreparably damaged by a storm
in 1997) at the foot of which is an urn containing the ashes of
the writer. Beyond it, is the sea.
In Agrigento,
at 120 of Via Regione Siciliana, you find the Biblioteca Luigi
Pirandello (Luigi Pirandello Library) with all the works by the
world-famous playwright and a vast collection of books by major
Sicilian writers.
