More than 20 years ago I was the first time to Palermo. And I loved it. Could not wait this time to be there again and see what I would recognize. Nothing honestly it was completely new to me but still amazing and overwhelming.
Palermo is one of the oldest cities in the world that is continuously inhabited. Founded about 734 BC by Phoenicians and called Ziz (means flower) it came under the rulers of Carthage. The Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire ruled over one thousand years.
Today it is still an active city and Sicily’s culture, economic and of course touristic center.
We arrived on a rainy day and where booked not int the center of the city but just outside in the suburban area of Monreale, overlooking the bay of Palermo. From here it is just one straight road to arrive in the heart of the buzzing city life. And exactly what we tried out the very next day.
The hotel receptionist explained me a little bit where exactly to go and where to find the sites I wanted to visit. One was the cemetery of the Capuchin monks. But my friend didn’t feel to see hanging around dead bodies. So we opted straight into the center and the antiques market.
At the Addaura grottoes were found prehistoric paintings so at least 8.000 BC there were already settlements.
Around 800 BC Phoenicians from Tyre/Lebanon came over and settled in this area. They founded a flourishing colony. They called the place Mabbonath Later the Greeks came to colonize the island and called the place Panormus (all port). The Phoenicians meanwhile established a great empire at the northern African coast. Until the Romans came the two civilizations lived peacefully together.
Panormus so called then was a very flourishing city during the Roman and Byzantine Empire.
With the decay of the Roman Empire the city had the same destiny like the whole island: around 445 it was sacked by the Vandal king Gaiseric, it came under the dominion of Odoacer and Theoderic’s Ostrogoths.
When in 831 the Arabs came it became the capital city of the Arab Emirate, after one year of siege. And again the whole island became flourishing and rich, the native people could live in peace and have there own religion, but they had to pay a tax. Palermo – called in Arab Balharm – was compared to Kairo and Cordoba for its importance and splendor.
It last only 250 years when Christianity took over the city. The great city with 350.000 inhabitants turned to a small city of 150.000 under the Norman rulers. But still it was important and center of a wealthy Kingdom of Sicily.
When through marriage it became Swabian (German) it was mainly Frederick II who grew up here, and made the city the capital of the Holy Roman Empire.
A short French alliance changed into another short Spanish period, Aragona after Anjou. And just the last 100 years before becoming part of the Kingdom of Italy under Giuseppe Garibaldi it was again French.
Today this metropolis has more than 720.000 inhabitants. In WW II there were done a lot of damage that still has to be repaired partly.
Palermo is also the ‘capital’ of Mafia, organized crime that from here spread over to the United States in early last century and recently to the rest of Europe and Russia. Well, today it is different to decades before for sure but there is no ‘Mafia-feeling’ there in Palermo or somewhere else in Sicily. Who has seen the Godfather series should go to Corleone, a little village in the mountains not too far from Palermo during lunch-time, when no one is in the streets, best in a hot summer day.. then feel the ‘movie-feeling’!
We where super lucky to have a sunny and relatively warm day for Palermo walking around. We have spent a longer time to visit the cathedral that is one of the most amazing places I have been.
Later we looked for a tiny restaurant to eat we found just on the next corner. After lunch and strolling along the main street with nearly all shops closed at 2 p.m. My friend took the occasion to enter an empty looking hair-dresser.
I spent the time exploring the calm streets and to have a closer look to another church: Saint Matthew of Cassiano.
We walked back in the early afternoon as we wanted to have a look as well to Monreale, which is another historic place. And where dinner would be great as it’s a tiny Medieval city in the mountains near to Palermo.
There are much more to see than just this few things we had a look at. Numerous churches, palaces, castles. Museums, squares and so on. To explore Palermo in a proper way one should stay at least a week. We had no time, tomorrow we would have to leave Sicily again in the evening and the daytime I wanted to drive in the surrounding landscape of Palermo.
Palermo, Sicily/Italy:
For further information:
Website about Sicily
Visit Palermo
