Patrick M. S. Blackett Institute

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The Blackett Institute preserves the history of one of Erice's former religious complexes while representing a very different chapter in the town's development: its emergence as an international meeting place for science, cooperation and peace.

San Michele and the Dominican foundation

The Dominican convent was established in 1486 through the support of the citizens and civic jurors of Monte San Giuliano, as Erice was then known. The pre-existing Church of San Michele Arcangelo was incorporated into the new foundation.

Originally small, the complex expanded through donations and civic support. Castronovo records municipal contributions towards the convent of 220 scudi in 1584, 135 scudi in 1605 and 930 scudi in 1612. Following the restoration of the Dominican community in 1664, six additional cells were created together with a new refectory, kitchen and cellar. Further building campaigns followed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The complex also became associated with important religious and civic institutions. The Confraternity of the Rosary was founded in 1587, while the blacksmiths' and goldsmiths' guild maintained a chapel dedicated to their patron, Sant'Eligio. Matteo Tusa also records that from 1671 the convent hosted a local academy whose members gathered for intellectual discussion.

An intriguing connection with Erice's civic history predates the Dominican foundation itself. Castronovo, citing the seventeenth-century historian Antonio Cordici, records that the town's first public clock was installed at San Michele. Its bell continued to mark the hours until 1567, when a new civic clock was installed beside the municipal palace.

The lost interior of San Domenico

Giuseppe Castronovo's detailed nineteenth-century account provides a valuable record of the church before the loss of its historic interior.

A major rebuilding undertaken by the Erice-born Dominican Melchiore Curatulo between 1830 and 1837 transformed the church. Castronovo describes a Corinthian interior divided into three small naves and containing eight altars.

Among its works was a white-marble Madonna del Soccorso, dated 1530 and traditionally attributed to Antonio Gagini, although Castronovo himself questioned the attribution. Other altars contained statues of San Vincenzo Ferreri and San Domenico by Rosario Bagnasco, an older wooden Sant'Eligio by the Erice sculptor Gianpietro d'Angelo, and a Crucifix by the Trapani artist Pietro Orlando. Paintings by the Erice priest and artist Carmelo Peraino represented Dominican saints.

The church also contained a monumental marble cross associated with an old Palm Sunday ceremony in which Erice's parish clergy processed to San Domenico to venerate the Cross. A dispute over the observance reached the Tribunal of the Apostolic Legation in Palermo in 1681, which ordered the custom to continue.

Structural problems were already evident by the nineteenth century. Castronovo records repairs in 1862, including a portico designed by Fra Francesco da Salaparuta. The church nevertheless remained open for worship until the late 1930s. Tusa records that its vault subsequently collapsed and that the building eventually faced the threat of complete ruin.

From convent to Blackett Institute

The suppression of religious orders in 1866 ended the Dominican occupation of the complex. The convent passed to the municipality and was subsequently used for elementary schools, a function it retained until 1962. Tusa records that the whole block had been unused from 1964 before its adaptation by the Ettore Majorana Centre for Scientific Culture.

The Centre had been formally established in 1962, with its first courses held in Erice the following year. Its founding charter was signed by physicists including John Bell, Patrick M. S. Blackett, Isidor I. Rabi, Victor Weisskopf and Antonino Zichichi.

The former Dominican complex became the Patrick M. S. Blackett Institute, named for the British experimental physicist and Nobel laureate. The convent buildings were restored for teaching, accommodation and institutional use, while the badly damaged former church was transformed into a modern 250-seat Aula Magna, now named for physicist Paul A. M. Dirac.

Rather than preserving the former church as an ecclesiastical interior, the conversion therefore gave its surviving structure a completely new function at the heart of Erice's modern scientific life.

Science and peace in Erice

Since the 1960s, the Ettore Majorana Centre has helped establish Erice as an international meeting place for scientists. The Foundation describes its mission in terms of scientific exchange across national and political boundaries and today explicitly presents Erice as a centre for dialogue on science and peace.

One of the most important expressions of this tradition was the Erice Statement, drafted in August 1982 by physicists Paul A. M. Dirac, Piotr Kapitza and Antonino Zichichi during the Cold War. The declaration addressed the responsibilities of scientists in a world threatened by nuclear weapons and called for scientific communication and cooperation across political divisions. Contemporary scientific reporting confirms that it was drafted during the second Seminar on Nuclear War held at Erice.

The Blackett Institute museum displays a handwritten copy of the Statement dated 24 August 1982. Its concluding appeal calls upon scientists in East and West to work together so that scientific knowledge might benefit humanity rather than contribute to its destruction.

Also displayed is a White House letter signed by US President Ronald Reagan on 12 August 1987, addressed to the Seventh Session of the International Seminar on Nuclear War in Erice. Reagan praised the free exchange of scientific ideas and international cooperation and recognised the Ettore Majorana Centre's long-standing commitment to scientific progress.

From nuclear war to planetary emergencies

The international seminars begun during the Cold War subsequently developed beyond nuclear conflict to consider a much wider range of threats facing humanity.

The Foundation traces the programme to the Seminars on Nuclear War begun in 1980. These evolved into the International Seminars on Nuclear War and Planetary Emergencies, bringing scientists and decision-makers from different countries and disciplines to Erice.

Recent meetings have addressed subjects including nuclear security, international conflict, climate and water crises, wildfires, infectious disease, energy transition, artificial intelligence, cosmic hazards and solar storms.

This continuing programme connects the historic buildings of Erice with a modern identity developed over more than sixty years: a place where international scientific exchange is used to address questions extending beyond individual disciplines to peace, human welfare and global threats.

Museum and belvedere

Today the Blackett–San Domenico Institute is one of the museum venues operated by the Ettore Majorana Foundation. The Foundation's museums have hosted permanent and temporary exhibitions since 2019, and the Blackett Institute can be visited as part of the museum circuit.

Displays document the scientific and cultural history associated with the Centre, including material relating to the Erice Statement and the international scientific community that developed around the Foundation.

On the upper level, the Olof Palme Hall and adjoining belvedere provide extensive views across the rooftops of Erice and the surrounding landscape. The space has also been used during scientific meetings for poster sessions and informal gatherings, combining one of the complex's most striking viewpoints with its continuing conference function.