Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
PALERMO
POP 656,829
Sicily's main city is draped in a mantle of unpredictability and adventure: its streets are
chaotic, its buildings are magnificently dishevelled and its residents - many of whom have
a penchant for rule bending and a healthy suspicion of outsiders - can be an inscrutable lot.
To gain an initial understanding of the city's unique culture, start by wandering the streets
of the old city. The mix of architectural styles points to the wave upon wave of invaders
who have claimed the city as their own, as does the look of the locals. Put simply, there's
no one style or people in this urban melting pot, and there never has been.
History
The city looks old for a reason - it is. Nearly 3000 years old, at that. It started life as a
huddle of Phoenician stores on a peaceful bay surrounded by the fertile Conca d'Oro, a
prime piece of real estate that long made it a target for Sicily's colonisers. As the
Carthaginians and Greeks began to flex their territorial muscles, the little depot grew in
strategic and economic importance, eventually becoming known as Panormus (the Greek
word for 'port').
Conquered by the Arabs in AD 831, the port flourished and became a very fine city. So
much so that when the Normans invaded in 1072, Roger I (1031-1101) made it the seat of
his kingdom, encouraging the resident Arabs, Byzantines, Greeks and Italians to remain. In
Sicily, the Normans found their longed-for 'kingdom of the sun' and under their en-
lightened rule Palermo became the most cultured city of 12th-century Europe.
The end of Roger's line (with the death of William II in 1189) was to signal a very long
and terminal decline of the city. A series of extraordinary and often bloody political
struggles saw the island pass from German (Hohenstaufens) to French (Angevins) to Span-
ish (Aragonese) and English rule. None of these powers - who were nearly always uninter-
ested and removed from Palermo - could regain the splendour of the Norman era. The only
physical change to the city occurred under the Spaniards, with the imposition of a rational
city plan that disguised the original Moorish layout. If you see the city from an altitude,
you'll notice the baroque domes rising like islands above a sea of alleyways.
Industrial entrepreneurs such as the Florios and the Whitakers gave the city a brief flash
of brilliance in the pre-WWI period by dressing it in the glamorous and decadent Liberty
(Italian art nouveau) style, resulting in Palermo's final belle époque. But two world wars
