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which was built in 1505. Outside an outstanding square bell tower stands out, marked by stringcourses and an octagonal spire tiled with majolica. The tower dates back to 1680.

The Church of S. Maria Maggiore, already existing in the 12th century, is divided into two naves by a wall supported by four Romanesque columns and capitals. A chapel houses a painted wooden cross, dating back to the 15th century. In its saltire and chief medallions the four evangelists are represented.

The main altar is the one on the right, dedicated to Our Lady and built in 1503 by Bartholomeus de Maniscalco, probably using elements such as little columns and lions, which seem to be attributable to twelfth-century works of art.

Along Via Diodorea the Palazzo Giunta-Amato, which has a Rococo style, stands which is now partly occupied by the Museo Naturalistico della Riserva Naturale of Vallone Piano della Corte (the Naturalistic Museum of the Nature Reserve). Then such street leads to the area, where there was the Greek theatre mentioned by Diodorus. In this part of the town characterized by a road that goes down through a portion of the cavea of the ancient monument, the Church of San Pietro (the Church of St. Peter) stands. It was built in 1584 and it houses a fifteenthcentury polyptic as well as some paintings representing Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady of the Annunciation and the Madonna of the True Light. The latter is attributed to Pietro Novelli.

Opposite there is the Complesso degli Agostiniani ( the complex of the Augustinians) along with a church dedicated to the Bishop of Ippona and a large building with a porticoed side courtyard. The church was built in 1512 from the ruins of the Greek Theatre.

Going up towards the top of the town, the urban fabric thickens and acquires the characteristics of the Arab qasbah. Alleys and courtyards overlook the sides of the winding main road, which leads to Piazza di Santa Margherita. The homonymous temple one of the major buildings in Agira and the largest church in the diocese of Nicosia. It was built in 1215 during the Frederick II Hohenstaufen's reign. At that time it was dedicated to St. Sebastian, according to the tradition on the ruins of the great temple of Heracles. Probably during the Byzantine age, here there was a church dedicated to St. Sophia, the bell tower of 1721, the new apses and the transept, attributed to Giovan Battista Vaccarini and completed in 1766. Another famous architect, Stefano Ittar, tried to design the dome, but it was left unfinished. Among the works of art there is the seventeenth-century main altar, adorned with golden miniatures on glass; the Altare del SS. Sacramento (the altar of the Holy Sacrament), with architectural forms made of hard stones and Egyptian granite, the Altare dell'Immacolata (the Altar of the Immaculate Conception) along with the statue of the Immaculate made by Giuseppe Picano between 1784 and 1787, and its wooden aedicule attributed to Ignazio Leone (1810). There are also a number of paintings including the Misericordia (the Mercy) made by the Sicilian School (17th century), Santa Maria Maddalena (St. Mary Magdalene) attributed to the seventeenth-century Venetian school and the Addolorata ( Our Lady of Sorrows) with the four evangelists made by Ovidio Sozzi. The wooden choir was made by Giovan Battista and Stefano Li Volsi in the early twentieth century. The Baroque portal, which leads to the sacristy, is very interesting. The Church houses the furniture of Paolo Guglielmaci from Enna (18th century) and the wooden pulpit.

Near the monumental arch supporting the terrace of the great church, there is the area which is supposed to be the acropolis of the ancient polis. Among the monuments there are the ruins of the 13