Palermo Totally Explained

Everything about Palermo totally explained

Palermo (Sicilian: Palermu, Greek: Panormus) is a historic city in southern Italy, the capital of the autonomous region Sicily and the province of Palermo. The city is noted for its rich history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it's over 2,700 years old. Palermo is located in the north-west of the island of Sicily, right by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
   The city was founded by the Phoenicians, but named by the Ancient Greeks as Panormus meaning all port. Palermo became part of the Roman Republic and eventually part of the Byzantine Empire, for over a thousand years. For a brief period it was under Arab rule where it first became a capital. Following the Norman reconquest, Palermo would become capital of a new kingdom from 1130 to 1816 the Kingdom of Sicily. Eventually it would be united with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Two Sicilies until the Italian unification of 1860.
   The metropolitan area of Palermo is the fifth most populated in Italy and in the top eighty of the largest in all of Europe with around 1.2 million people. In the central area, the city itself has a population of around 670 thousand people, the inhabitants are known as Palermitans or poetically panormiti, the language spoke by its inhabitants is the Sicilian language.
   The religion of Roman Catholicism is highly important in Palermitan culture, the patron saint of the city is Saint Rosalia, her feast day on July 15 is perhaps the biggest social event in the city. The area attracts significant amounts of tourists each year and is widely known for its colourful fruit, vegetable and fish market at the heart of Palermo known as the Vucciria.

History

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Palermo was founded in the 20th century BC by Phoenician tradesmen around a natural harbour on the north-western coast of Sicily. The Phoenician name for the city may have been Zîz, but Greeks called it Panormus (see also List of traditional Greek place names), meaning all-port, because of its fine natural harbour. It should be noted however that the city was never a Greek city-state, but was later part of the Greek speaking Eastern Roman Empire. Palermo is widely considered to be one of the most conquered cities in the world.
   Palermo remained a Carthaginian city until the First Punic War (264-241 BC), when Sicily fell under Roman rule. The Roman period was one of comparative calm, Palermo coming under the provincial administration in Syracuse. When the Roman Empire was split, Sicily and Palermo came under the rule of the Eastern Byzantine Empire.
   In the 9th century, Sicily was divided into two prefectures by the Byzantines. The two prefects went to war with each other, and Euphimius, the winner, dreamt of reuniting the Roman empire. However, he lacked an army, so he asked the Arab Aghlabids rulers of North Africa, at the time the up-and-coming power in the Mediterranean, to lend him theirs. Within a week of the Arabs' arrival in Palermo in 827, Euphimius died mysteriously, and they declined to leave. By 878 all of Sicily, except for a few Byzantine enclaves near Taormina, was controlled by the Saracens. In 905 they captured those too. The Arab rulers moved Sicily's capital to Palermo where it has been ever since.
   Under Muslim dominion Palermo became an important commercial and cultural center, a flourishing city broadly known in the whole Arab world - it's said that it had more than 300 mosques. But they were also years of tolerance: Christians and Jews were permitted to follow their own credo.
   In 1060 the Normans launched an invasion against the Muslim emirate of Sicily, taking Palermo on January 10 1072 and the whole island by 1091. The resulting blend of Norman and Arab culture fostered a unique hybrid style of architecture as can be seen(External Link

) in the Palatine Chapel, the church San Giovanni degli Eremiti and the Zisa. It is arguable whether this conquest was a 'crusade', however. Count Roger (d.1101), brother of the infamous Robert Guiscard, took territories often by a treaty method. This is the long run implies that Muslims were able to continue their faith whilst local communities were largely unchanged. Moreover, that Roger wasn't attempting a 'crusade' but rather a territorial expansion is demonstrated by his eagerness to prevent conversion of Muslims within his own army. This is attested in the latin Chronicle, the Life of St Anselm.
   Sicily in 1194 fell under the control of the Holy Roman Empire. Palermo was the preferred city of the Emperor Frederick II. After an interval of Angevin rule (1266-1282), Sicily came under the house of Aragon and later, in (1479), the kingdom of Spain.
   Sicily's unification (1734) with the Bourbon-ruled kingdom of Naples as the kingdom of the Two Sicilies inflicted a devastating blow on the elite of Palermo, as the city was reduced to just another provincial city, the royal court residing in Naples. Palermo rebelled in 1848 and held out against the Neapolitan crown until May 1849.
   The Italian Risorgimento and Sicily's annexation (1860) to the kingdom of Italy gave Palermo a second chance. It was once again the administrative centre of Sicily, and there was a certain economic and industrial development. In the second half of the 19th century Palermo expanded beyond the historical centre, especially towards Via della Libertá. Monumental public buildings were erected and a new thoroughfare was cut into the dense old town, called Via Roma. The city was one of the main centres of Art Nouveau style in Italy.
   Palermo survived almost the entire fascist period unscathed, but during the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943 it suffered heavy damage.
   The importance of Palermo got another boost when Sicily became (1947) an autonomous region with extended self-rule. But any improvement was thwarted by the rising power of the Mafia, which still today is a dramatic feature of the city, as well as the whole Southern Italy.

Main sights

Palermo has a noteworthy architectural heritage and is notable for its many Norman buildings.

Churches

The Cathedral of Palermo (1185).
San Giovanni dei Lebbrosi (1071)
San Giovanni degli Eremiti (1132)
Martorana (Santa Maria dell'Ammiragliato, 1143)
San Cataldo (12th century)
Santa Maria della Gancia
Santa Maria della Catena
San Giuseppe dei Teatini
Oratorio di San Lorenzo
Oratorio del Rosario
Santa Teresa alla Kalsa derives its name from Al-Khalisa, an arab term meaning elected. The church, constructed in 1686-1706 over the former emir's residence, is one of the most outstanding examples of Sicilian Baroque. It has a single, airy nave, with stucco decorations from the early 18th century.
Santa Maria dello Spasimo was built in 1506 and later turned into a hospital. For this temple Raphael painted his famous Sicilia's Spasimo, now in the Museo del Prado of Madrid. The church today is a fascinating air-open ruin, which occasionally houses exhibitions and musical shows.
the Church of the Jesus (Chiesa del Gesù) was built by the Jesuits in the centre of the city from 1564, over a pre-existing convent of Basilian monks. The edifice was further enlarged starting from 1591, becoming one of the most relevant examples of Sicilian Baroque, though retaining some severe late Renaissance fashion. The church was heavily damaged after the 1943 bombings, which destroyed most of the frescoes. The interior has a Latin cross plan with a nave and two aisles, characterized by a particularly rich decoration of marbles, tarsias and stuccoes, especially in the St. Anne chapel. At the right is the Casa Professa, with a 1685 portal and a precious 18th century cloister. The Church of the Jesus is home to the Municipal Library, placede here in 1775.
The church of St. Francis of Assisi, erected in what was once the market district of the city. It was built between 1255 and 1277 in the site of two pre-existing churches, and was largely renovated in the 15th, 16th, 18th and 19th centuries, the latter after an earthquake. After the 1943 bombings, the church was restored to its Mediaeval appearance, which now includes part of the original building such as part of the right side, the apses and the Gothic portal in the façade. The interior has a typical Gothic flavour, with a nave and two aisles separated by two rows of cylindrical pilasters. Some of the chapels are in Renaissance style, as well as the late 16th century side portals. The church includes precious sculptures by Antonio and Giacomo Gagini, and Francesco Laurana, plus a noteworthy wooden choir dating from the 16th century. Of note are also the allegorical statues by Giacomo Serpotta (1723), also author of the stucco decoration.
The church of the Magione (officially church of the Holy Trinity), an ancient example of Norman architecture. The church was founded in 1191 by Matteo d'Ajello, who donated it to the Cistercian monks.

Palaces and museums

Palazzo dei Normanni, one of the most beautiful Italian palaces and a notable example of Norman architecture, probably built over an Arab fortress. It houses the famous Cappella Palatina.

Zisa (1160) and Cuba, magnificent castles/houses used by the kings of Palermo for hunting. Similar buildings were common in northern Africa, but today these two are the only ones remaining. The Zisa houses the Islamic museum. The Cuba was once encircled by water.

Palazzo Chiaramonte

Palazzo Abatellis, with the Regional Gallery. It was built at the end of the 15th century for the prefect of the city, Francesco Abatellis. It is a lassive though elegant construction, in typical Catalan Gothic style, with Renaissance influences. The Gallery houses an Elenora of Aragon bust by Francesco Laurana (1471) and the Malvagna Triptych (c. 1510), by Jan Gossaert and the famous Annunziata by Antonello da Messina. The exposition in the museum has been designed by the famous architect Carlo Scarpa.

The Museo Archeologico Regionale is one the main museums of Italy: it includes numerous remains from Etruscan, Carthaginian, Roman and Hellenistic civilizations. It houses all the decorative parts from the Sicilian temples of Segesta and Selinunte.

Opera Houses

The Teatro Massimo ("Greatest Theatre") was opened in 1897. Closed for renovation from 1974 until 1997, it's now carefully restored and has an active schedule. Enrico Caruso sang in a performance of La Gioconda during the opening season, returning for Rigoletto at the very end of his career. It is the largest theater in Italy (8000 sm).

The Teatro Politeama was built between 1867 and 1874. Nowadays, the town's Gallery of Modern Art is accommodated here.

Squares

Quattro Canti is a small square at the crossing of the ancient main roads (now: Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Via Maqueda) dividing the town into its quarters ('mandamenti'). The buildings at the corner have diagonal baroque facades so that the square gets an almost octagonal form.

Piazza Pretoria was planned in the 16th century near the Quattro Canti as the site of a fountain by Francesco Camilliani, the Fontana Pretoria.

Other sights

The Cathedral has a heliometer (solar "observatory") of 1690, one of a number built in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries. The device itself is quite simple: a tiny hole in one of the minor domes acts as Pinhole camera, projecting an image of the sun onto the floor at solar noon (12:00 in winter, 13:00 in summer). There is a bronze line, la Meridiana on the floor, running precisely N/S. The ends of the line mark the positions as at the summer and winter solstices; signs of the zodiac show the various other dates throughout the year.
   The purpose of the instrument was to standardise the measurement of time and the calendar. The convention in Sicily had been that the (24 hour) day was measured from the moment of sun-rise, which of course meant that no two locations had the same time and, more importantly, didn't have the same time as in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It was also important to know when the Vernal Equinox occurred, to provide the correct date for Easter.
   The Orto botanico di Palermo, founded in 1785, is the largest in Italy with a surface of 10 ha.
   One site of interest is the Capuchin Catacombs, with many mummified corpses in varying degrees of preservation.
   Close to the city is high Monte Pellegrino, with spectacular views of the city, its surrounding mountains and the ocean. .

Sports

Palermo has its own football team, U.S. Città di Palermo, playing in Italian Serie A and in UEFA Cup first round of the 2007-2008 season. The chairman is Maurizio Zamparini and the coach is Stefano Colantuono. The Targa Florio was an open road endurance car race held near Palermo. Founded in 1906, it used to be one of the oldest sports car racing events until it was discontinued in 1977 due to safety concerns but has since run as a rallying event.
Home to the grand depart of the 2008 Giro d'Italia. The initial stage will be a 28.5 km long TTT (Team Time Trial) held on May 10th.

Patron saints

The patron saint of Palermo is Santa Rosalia, who is still widely venerated. On the 14th of July, people in Palermo celebrate the "Festino", which is the most important religious event of the year. The Festino is a procession in the main street of Palermo to remember the miracle attributed to Santa Rosalia who, it's believed, freed the city from the Black Death in 1624. The cave where the bones of Santa Rosalia were discovered is on Monte Pellegrino (see above): when her relics were carried around the city three times, the plague was lifted. There is a Santuario marking the spot and can be reached via a scenic bus ride from the city below.
Before 1624 Palermo had four patron saints, one for each of the four major parts of the city. They were Saint Agatha, Saint Christina, Saint Ninfa and Saint Olivia.
Saint Lucy is also honoured with a peculiar celebration, during which inhabitants of Palermo don't eat anything made with flour, but boil wheat in its natural state and use it to prepare a special dish called cuccìa. This commemorates the saving of the city from famine through the intercession of St Lucia. A ship full of grain mysteriously arrived in the city's harbour and the population was so hungry that they didn't waste time in making flour but ate the grain as it had arrived.

Climate

Climate Table>

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
massima temperaturaquotidiano (°C)	12	15	16	18	22	27	30	28	26	23	19	16
temperatura minima quotidiano (°C)	7	8	11	13	16	19	20	21	18	17	14	11
media totale di pioggia(mm)	71.1	66.0	58.4	43.2	25.4	12.7	5.1	12.7	40.6	99.1	94.0	81.3
Source: Weather Channel

Transport

Palermo International Airport, also known as Falcone-Borsellino Airport, Punta Raisi Airport: dedicated to Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, two anti-mafia judges killed by the mafia in early 1990s, is located 32 km (19 miles) west of Palermo (Punta Raisi). It's one of the busiest airport in Italy with 4.500.000 passengers. Buses depart roughly every 30 minutes from the central railway station to the airport
The airport can also be reached by trains departing from Centrale, Notarbartolo and Francia stations.

Twin cities

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Timişoara, Romania

Gdańsk, Poland

Miami, USA

Monterey, Canada

Palermo, Colombia

Santiago de Cuba, Cuba

Tblisi, Georgia

Yaroslavl, RussiaFurther Information

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