Fodor's Expert Review Real Duomo and Torre di Re Fernando

Just inside Porta Trapani, the western entrance that most people use to access Erice, the first sight that confronts visitors to the town is the dramatic ensemble of the Real Duomo, Erice's main church, and its detached belltower, the Torre di Re Fernando. Both are battlemented and retain a formidable Gothic appearance. The church, dating from around 1314, contains traces of a fresco of an angel dating from its original construction, visible in the sanctuary on the left-hand side of the nave. The belltower was orignally built by the Aragonese as a lookout tower in the late 13th century, and its 108 steps can be climbed for splendid bird's-eye views.