«Sicily is a land for Architects». The Arts & Crafts culture of Charles Robert Ashbee in Sicily (1907-1909)

Abstract

In 1907, the English architect Charles Robert Ashbee (1863-1942) was in Taormina, invited by his friend, Colonel Thomas Bradney Shaw-Hellier (1836-1910), to design the house he wanted to build in the Sicilian town. Trained at King's College, he is known to have been one of the principal protagonists of the Arts and Crafts movement. When Ashbee arrived in Sicily, we was immediately enthusiastic about Taormina, the ancient monuments and, of course, he was enchanted by Mount Etna. This trip also gave him the opportunity to visit some of the most important archaeological sites and other island towns. Through his Memoirs, preserved at the Victoria & Albert Library in London, which tell in diary form part of his life and activities between 1884 and 1923, it is possible to trace the places, the monuments, and the landscapes that excited him, without neglecting the many suggestions of the cultural and traditional aspects of Sicily. With an acute spirit and unfailing English humour, he described the landscape as well as the anthropological aspects of the Island, the habits and the character of the inhabitants.Between January and February 1907, Ashbee visited Syracuse, Agrigento. At the end of this brief but intense journey among the most important monuments of the island, he wrote: "Sicily is a land for Architects". During his Sicilian journey, he lived through the dramatic earthquake in the Strait of Messina of 1908, noting the horror of the destruction and desperation of the inhabitants. He was to return to his homeland in the following April, after the conclusion of the works on the villa he had designed for his English friend, which, transformed over the past few decades into a hotel, is now called Ashbee Hotel.