GIBELLINA - On the night between 14 and 15 January 1968, Gibellina was totally destroyed by the earthquake that devastated the Belice area. After the odyssey of its reconstruction, the new town today stands on a flat area 18 km from the old one, seen as a living testimony to the tragedy of this land. 

It is a town-museum, a celebration of the modern that has witnessed the participation of many artists, who have contributed ideas and projects to give Gibellina and its people a new start. It has an elliptical layout with wide streets, marking the great distances that separate the dwellings and have allowed the creation of large open spaces. 

The symbol of the town is a huge stone star created by Pietro Consagra; many others works have been donated by artists from Sicily and elsewhere, creating in a short time the only collection of contemporary art in Sicily. Even the debris of the old town has been turned into a huge sculpture: the so-called "Ruderi di Gibellina" covered by Alberto Burri with a thick layer of concrete, a dazzling white blanket spread over the side of the mountain sculpting the landscape and symbolising the human compassion in the face of the catastrophe.