Engineer, architect, designer of railway lines, collector of folk traditions, self-taught geologist and archaeologist, after 1826 Cavallari was employed by the Duke of Serradifalco to perform the archaeological explorations in Sicily. Active in Mexico City from 1857 to 1864 as professor at the Academia de San Carlos, he was later appointed director of the Sicilian antiquities and then headed the archaeological museum of Syracuse from 1884 leading the excavations in eastern Sicily, including those of Megara Hyblaea. In 1864 Cavallari discovered the Sarcophagus of Adelaide at the Catacombs of San Giovanni in Syracuse and the theater of Syracuse. In 1891 he managed to make the National Museum of Syracuse.
His most significant work is the “Siracusa Archaeological Topography”, published with his son Christopher and historian Adolf Holm in 1883. It still constitutes an essential tool for topographic reconstruction of the ancient city.
Read More:
1. Museo Regionale Archeologico Paolo Orsi, http://www.regione.sicilia.it/beniculturali/museopaoloorsi/museo/saveriocavallari.htm
2. Wikipedia, https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Saverio_Cavallari
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