Santoni, Rock-cut sanctuary near Palazzolo Acreide, Sicily, Italy

Santoni is an archaeological site near Palazzolo Acreide in Sicily, where twelve niches were cut directly into a rocky hillside. Each niche contains carved reliefs showing the goddess Cybele and figures associated with her, all shaped from the living rock.

The sanctuary was carved around the 4th or 3rd century BC, when Akrai, founded by Syracuse in 665/4 BC, controlled routes between Syracuse and the Greek and Sicel cities. The historian Michele Amari suggested Akrai was destroyed in 827 during the Islamic conquest of Sicily; medieval Palazzolo Acreide, first mentioned by Edrisi, grew up nearby.

The carvings show Cybele wearing a pleated chiton and a himation, her hair in a melon-like style with two long ringlets, and a modius on her head. Two lions sit in heraldic positions at her sides, and some figures hold a patera in the right hand and a tympanum in the left. In about five niches minor figures appear beside her: Hermes, Attis, Hecate, the Dioscuri, the Galli and the Corybantes.

The site sits on the edge of Palazzolo Acreide and can be reached on foot along a short path. Because the niches sit roughly at eye level, viewing the carvings is comfortable and requires no special effort.

Among the twelve carved figures, one stands upright at full size while all the others are seated. This single standing figure has led researchers to think that one niche held a role different from the rest, though the exact reason remains unclear.