That's Italy!
a cura di
PALERMO
HISTORY…
Palermo, magnificently situated in a beautiful bay on the North coast of Sicily, is the capital of the island and its principal port, a university town and the see of an archbishop. It is bounded on the South and West by the artificially irrigated and fertile fruitgrowing plain known as the Conca d’Oro (Golden Shell), with a wide arc of imposing mountains forming the background.
Although
Palermo now has the aspect of an entirely modern city, it preserves a
distinctive character. Thanks to its Norman buildings with their rather Oriental
style of architecture, as well as to the Baroque architecture it has iherited
from the period of Spanish rule, the old town with its narrow and twisting side
streets is still the scene of a vigorous popular life. Its numerous gardens and
palm-shaded promenades give it a particular charm.
Founded
by the Phoenicians and known to the Greeks
as Panormos, Palermo became the principal Carthaginian base in Sicily
until its capture by the Romans in 254 B.C. In A.D. 353 the Byzantine general
Belisarius recovered it from the Ostrogoths, and thereafter it remained in
Byzantine hands until its capture by the Saracens in 830. The Saracens were
followed in 1072 by the Normans, who were in turn succeeded in 1194 by the
Hohenstaufens and in 1266 by the house of Anjou, whose brief period of rule was
ended by the popular rising known as the Sicilian Vespers in 1282. Palermo then
came under Aragonese and Spanish rule, passed to the Bourbons in the 18th
century and was finally liberated by Garibaldi on 27 May 1860.
STROLLING IN PALERMO
Bathed
by the waters of the Tyrrenian Sea, dominated by Mount Pellegrino, and filled
with the scents of the citrus groves of the Conca d’Oro (Golden Crescent),
Palermo is the regional and economic capital of the largest Italian island.
Noone visiting Sicily should miss the chance to visit it: to enjoy its palazzos
and its churches, to lose oneself in the oriental chamrs of the labyrinth of
ancient allyways, to relax in the shade of the luxuriant vegetation, and to
enjoy the cheerful vitality of the famous markets. Nor would the city be the
same without its decadent buildings, the popular character of its old districts
and its strong bond with traditions, which convey the umistakable nature of
places and people flourishing under the southern sun.
From Palazzo dei Normanni to Teatro Massimo
The
old center of Palermo, is surprising on account of the diversity of its faces,
partly originating from the multiplicity of its remodelling. As in this first
itinerary; starting from the Cathedral we touch the most famous monuments of the
Norman period which reveal the skills of the Muslim craftsmen of whom the
conquerors made use; the most difficult achievements of the baroque epoch, which
impress one bye the expertise of their town planning; the examples of medieval
and Renaissance art; and the 19th century Teatro Massimo where this
route finishes. In the background is the old city, which unravels itself from
the fine network of angled, forked and restricted alleyways, a reminder of
ancient inhabitants coming from the distant East.
From Olivella to the Piazza Pretoria
The second Palermitan itinerary starts in the remotest part, not only of the city, but of the region. The collections in the Archaeological Museum actually come from all over Sicily, known to be the ancestral haunts of many ancient people. And from exhibit to exhibit we shall approach the nearer past as shown by the oratories in what was once the craftsmen’s quarter, as indicated by the street names in the grid Renaissance zones, in a sort of topographical contnuum, interrupted only by the Norman churches of the Martorana and of San Cataldo, which certainly add to the harmony of the whole instead of destroying it.
From Via Roma to the Sea
Now we are to visit the part of the historic center corresponding to the kalsa Quarter, which has most traces of the Aragonese period. Perhaps this is one of the areas which is most contradictory and extraordinary in all Palermo. Beside decaying, if not abandoned, structures, between a tangle of lanes there are open squares and one sees edifices which call up pictures of the luxury or of the power of the Palermitan aristocracy or the religious orders who lived their moments of great good fortune in medieval or Renaissance times.
From
the Teatro Politeama to the Parco della Favorita
The
last itinerary winds away northwards outside historical centre where, from the
19th c. onwards the new town has been growing. Here the urban
landscape, countersigned by the architects Giovanni Battista and Ernesto Basile,
among others, is completely different. The squares and streets unfold a
different beauty, released this time by the neoclassical and Art Nouveau styles.
Theatres and villas take the place of churches and palaces, modern residential
quarters flank the main thoroughfares of this part of the town, where there is
also, towards the top, the green of a lovely park.
TRADITIONS
The inhabitants of Palermo are deeply involved with popular traditions. The parties and customs that articulate the life of the city are enjoyed with enthusiastic participation. The marionette theatre returns regularly during the Festival of Morgana in October and November. In October the Festival of the Madonna of Light is celebrated with a procession of boats during which the waters are blessed. On 2 November, All Souls day, there is a fair in which every year typical sweets and toys are prepared, symbolic of the gifts to their children by the loved ones who are no more. From 13 to 15 July, it is the time of Saint Rosalia, patron saint of the city, celebrated with “U’ festinu” which includes parades along the city streets and concludes with a wonderful fireworks display.
SHOPPING
In Palermo you can find a
little of everything: shops of high fashion, expert craftsmen working in coral,
embroidered fabrics, and stalls with every kind of merchandise in the many
markets which attract every kind of person and commodity. The elegant shopping
area is from the Via Libertà and Via Ruggero VII to end of Via Maqueda. Also
much frequent by tourists are the craftmens’ shops, particularly those working
in ceramics, for which there is a long tradition in Sicily.
Information:
- Ufficio Informazioni AAPIT
– Piazza Castelnuovo 34/35 – Palermo – Italy
Phone
+39.091.60.58.111 - +39.091.6110977
-Azienda
Autonoma – salita Belmonte 1 – Palermo – Italy
Phone
+39.091.54.01.22
SUGGESTED WEB SITES
www.palermo2000.com
– www.palermosms.cjb.net – www.go.to/palermosite
– www.palermonet.com
SICILY GREEK TOUR
To
the west of Palermo lies what remains of one of the most important cities of
Magna Grecia. This is SEGESTA, founded
in seventh century BC and destroyed by the Carthaginians in 4 BC. Today little
remains but what there is makes one marvel at the superb Greek sense of
architectural proportion and balance.
On
a rocky hillside stands the Temple of Artemis, built in the Doric style but
never completed. The 61 m long temple has a complete colonnade of plain,
unfluted columns on all sides, and the pediments, metopes and architraves are in
place.
There
is no roof and the interior is empy, though it may once have held the shrine of
a local deity. Of the town nothing is left exept a few foundations, but the
thirdcentury theatre build into the slope of the mountain is considered one of
the best preserved Hellenistic theatres in Sicily.
From
Trapani the Sicilian coast curves south and then south east to a region rich in
Greek temples. The first of these temples is at SELINUNTE, destroyed by the Carthaginians in the fith and third
centuries BC.
Selinunte
has no fewer than seven temples, designated today by the letters A to G, for the
destruction of the town was so complete that the names of the gods to whom the
temples were dedicated have disappeared.
The
end of Selinunte, like that of Segesta, was due to the envy that the
Carthaginians felt for Akragas (now
AGRIGENTO) which they planned to conquer by landing in west Sicily and
advancing eastwards. They succeed in 406 BC when the Akragas mercenary troops
betrayed their masters and joined in the massacre, rape and pillage which ended
Akragas’ supremacy in Sicily. Time and possibly early Christian destruction of
the pagan temples reduced Akragas further to the ruins you see today in the
Vallata dei Templi (Valley of the Temples). The town of Agrakas lies accross a
valley from modern Agrigento and is situated on a spur of hill overlooking the
sea, surrounded by city walls. The first temple the visitor ecounters is that of
Giunone Lacinia which lies in ruins on the hillside. Then comes the best
preserved of the temples, the Temple of Concord, which was saved from
destruction by its use as Christian church in the sixth century. The Temple of
Concord was built about 450 BC in the local sandstone which gives it a warm
ochre colour. Whe new, this, like other temples not made of marble, would have
been coated with alabaster to give the white effect, and parts of them were
often brightly coloured.
Only
the ruins remain of the other temples, with a few columns standing, but their
foundations give a good idea of their original size and the site as a whole is
most evocative, with wild flowers and grasses growing among the drums of the
fallen columns. Much of what has been found on the site can be seen in the Museo
Nazionale Archeologico, which also includes finds from other city states along
the coast, including, Gela and the Caltanissetta region inland.
SYRACUSE was one of the first
east-coast settlements; it developed on the island of Ortigia, becoming the most
important town in Magna Grecia. This city was the birthplace of Archimedes (one
of the most brilliant scientists of ancient times) who was killed by a roman
soldier. That was 2500 years ago; today Syracuse is a small industrial port
showing few obvious signs of its glorious past. The old part of the town (Città
Vecchia) is on Ortygia which is joined to the mainland by a bridge.
Un
the hill on the mainland are Greek and Roman ruins, including a superb Greek
theatre which could hold up to 15000 people, and a Roman arena of the third
century. There is also a number of grottoes, one of which, the Orecchio di
Dioniso (the ear of Dionysius), earned its name from its supposed acoustic
qualities which allowed the tyrant Dionysius to overhear the conversations of
the prisoners he kept in the cave.
Syracuse’s
Museo Nazionale Archeologico, with its important collection of Graeco-Roman
finds, stands to the east of these monuments of antiquity.
Throughout
its history, REGGIO (CALABRIA) ‘S
strategic position has made it a target for most of the invaders of Two Sicilies,
and it has also been the victim of numerous earthquakes. For this reason, Reggio
has few old buildings and cannot show many remains of ancient civilizations,
though it does have one of the world’s finest archaeological museums of the
Greek culture of Magna Graecia. The pride of the collection are the almost
undamaged fifth-century Greek bronzes of warriors, discovered at Riace Marina
along the Ionian coast of Calabria in 1980. The finds made along the Calabrian
coast before that date fill ten rooms, a great many of them from the town of
Locri, along the same section of coast as Riace. The museum also has a
collection of paintings, including two by Antonello da Messina.
INFORMATION:
AGRIGENTO: Ufficio
Informazioni AAIPT – Viale della Vittoria 255 – Agrigento phone
+39.092.240.1352
Ufficio
Informazioni, Via Battisti 15 – Agrigento phone +39.092.220.454
SIRACUSA: Ufficio
Informazioni AAIPT – Via S. Sebastiano 43 – Siracusa phone +39.093146.1477
SUGGESTED WEB SITES
