Palermo italy has a noteworthy architectural heritage and is notable for its many Norman buildings.
in Palermo see the :
Opera Houses
The Teatro Massimo (Greatest Theatre) was opened in 1897. Closed for renovation from 1974 until 1997, it is 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. The piazza is octagonal four sides being the streets, and the remaining four sides are Baroque buildings the near identical facades of which contain fountains with statues of the four seasons, the four Spanish kings of Sicily, and of the patronesses of Palermo, (Cristina, Ninfa, Olivia, and Agata).Piazza Pretoria was planned in the 16th century near the Quattro Canti as the site of a fountain by Francesco Camilliani, the Fontana Pretoria.
Palermo has a noteworthy architectural heritage and is notable for its many Norman buildings.
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 re
maining. 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.
Churches
- The Cathedral of Palermo
- San Giovanni dei Lebbrosi - San Giovanni degli Eremiti
- Martorana (Santa Maria dell'Ammiragliato, 1143)
- San Cataldo (12th century)
- Santa Maria della Gancia
- 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.
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Palermo 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 is 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 city is the 5 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.
Sicily (Sicilian/Sicilia) is an autonomous region of Italy. Sicily is divided into nine provinces;
- Capital Palermo city
- Agrigento
- Caltanissetta
- Catania
- Enna
- Messina
- Ragusa
- Syracuse
- Trapani.
Sicily (Sicilian or Sicilia) and its small surrounding islands are highly significant in the area of volcanology. Mount Etna is the only volcano on mainland Sicily located in the east.
Transport in Sicily (Sicilian/Sicilia).
The most prominent Sicilian roads are the motorways (known as autostrade) running through the northern section of the island, this includes the A19 Palermo-Catania, the A20 Palermo-Messina, the A29 Palermo-Trapani-Mazara del Vallo and the toll road A18 Messina-Catania. Much of the motorway network is elevated by columns due to the mountainous terrain of the island. The Sicilian public is served by a network of railway services, linking to most major cities and towns; this service is operated by Trenitalia. There are services to Naples and Rome; this is achieved by the trains being loaded onto ferries which cross to the mainland.
Airport in Sicily ( Cantania - Palermo ) : Mainland Sicily has three airports which serve numerous European destinations; to the east is the Catania-Fontanarossa Airport which is the busiest on the island (and one of the busiest in all of Italy). Palermo hosts the Palermo International Airport, which is also substantially large, the third airport actually on the island is the Trapani-Birgi Airport which is smaller. There are also two small airports on smaller islands which are considered part of Sicily; Lampedusa Airport and Pantelleria Airport. By sea, Sicily is served by several ferry routes most of which are to Sicily's small surrounding islands and mainland Italy (as well as Sardinia), there is also a daily service between Malta and Pozzallo.
Art culture sport & World Heritage in Sicily Italy :
Sicily has long been associated with the arts; many poets, writers, philosophers, intellectuals, architects and painters have roots on the island. The history of prestige in this field can be traced back to Greek philosopher Archimedes, a Syracuse native who has gone on to become renowned as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time.
Terra cotta ceramics from the island are well known, the art of ceramics on Sicily goes back to the original ancient peoples named the Sicanians, it was then perfected during the period of Greek colonisation and is still prominent and distinct to this day. There are two prominent folk art traditions on Sicily, both draw heavily from Norman influence; Sicilian cart is the painting of wooden carts with intricate decorations of scenes from the Norman romantic poems, such as The Song of Roland. The same tales are told in traditional puppet theatres which feature hand-made wooden marionettes, this is especially popular in Acireale. Famous Sicilian painters include Renaissance artist Antonello da Messina, Renato Guttuso and Greek born Giorgio de Chirico who is commonly dubbed the "father of Surrealist art" and founder of the metaphysical art movement.
Llanguage in Sicily
Many Sicilians are bilingual in Italian and Sicilian, an entirely separate Romance language which is not derived from Italian and has a sizeable vocabulary with at least 250,000 words. Some of the words are loan words with slight changes, taking influence from Greek, Latin, Catalan, Arabic, Spanish and others.[80] The Sicilian language is also spoken to some extent in Calabria and Apulia, it had a significant influence on the Maltese language. In the modern age as Italian is taught in schools and is the language of the media, especially in some of the urban areas Sicilian is now a secondary language amongst much of the youth .
Sport in Sicily
The best known and most popular sport on the island of Sicily is football, which was introduced in the late 1800s under the influence of the English. Some of the oldest football clubs in all of Italy are Sicilian: the three most successful are Palermo, Messina and Catania, who have all, at some point, played in the prestigious Serie A. To date, no Sicilian side has ever won Serie A, however football is deeply embeded in local culture, all over Sicily each town has its own representative team.
World Heritage Sites in In Sicily
Noto, Ragusa, and particularly Acireale contain some of Italy's best examples of Baroque architecture, carved in the local red sandstone
Perhaps the most well known part of Sicilian cuisine is the rich sweet dishes including ice creams and pastries. Cannoli, a tube-shaped shell of fried pastry dough filled with a sweet filling usually containing ricotta cheese, is in particular strongly associated with Sicily worldwide. Biancomanfiare, biscotti ennesi (cookies native to Enna), braccilatte a Sicilian version of doughnuts, buccellato, ciarduna, pignoli, bruccellati, sesame seed cookies, a sweet confection with sesame seeds and almonds (torrone in Italy) is cubbaita, from the Arabic sweet qubbayt, frutta martorana, cassata, pignolata, granita and cuccìa are amongst some of the most notable sweet dishes
Like the cuisine of the rest of southern Italy, pasta plays an important part in Sicilian cuisine, as does rice; for example with arancini. As well as using some other cheeses, Sicily has spawned some of its own, using both cows and sheeps milk, such as pecorino and caciocavallo. Spices used include saffron, nutmeg, clove, pepper, and cinnamon which were introducted by the Arabs. Although commonly associated with sea food cuisines, meat dishes including goose, lamb, goat, rabbit, and turkey are also found in Sicily, it was the Normans and Hohenstaufen who first introduced a fondness for meat dishes to the island.
Sicily (Sicilian: Sicilia) is an autonomous region of Italy, and Capital Palermo. Of all the regions of Italy, Sicily covers the largest land area at 25,708 km² and currently has five million inhabitants. It is also the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. In addition, several much smaller islands surrounding it are also considered to be part of Sicily. Along with Sardinia, the island is officially classified as a region of Insular Italy.
Sicily is considered to be highly rich in its own unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, cuisine, architecture and even language. The Sicilian economy is largely based on agriculture (mainly orange and lemon orchards); this same rural countryside has attracted significant tourism in the modern age as its natural beauty is highly regarded. Sicily also holds importance for archeological and ancient sites such as the Necropolis of Pantalica and the Valley of the Temples.
