Gibil Gabib is an archaeological site located about 5 km south of Caltanissetta, on a 615-metre-high mountain.
Excavations were first undertaken in the area in the middle of the 19th century and were reprised with great enthusiasm in the 1950s by the archaeologist Dinu Adameșteanu. They came to an end in 1984. In those undertaken in the middle of the 20th century, remains dating to the 6th century BC were brought to light, including parts of the city walls and some ceramic objects of the Bronze Age Castelluccio culture, while the 1980s excavations revealed a defensive tower from the middle of the 6th century BC. These discoveries were of great significance, because they helped to clarify the course of the city wall discovered almost thirty years earlier.
Objects discovered in the excavations include vases, objects for everyday use, plates and lamps, as well as a terracotta statue of a female divinity and the terracotta head, which demonstrate the existence of various spaces dedicated to religious cult. At the base of the mountain, there is a necropolis, where Siceliote red-figure pottery was found.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.