Palermo, Italy

Palermo, under the name of Balerm, was made the capital of the Emirs of Sicily. Reports by travelers of the time placed its many mosques, palaces and irrigation plants on a par with those in Baghdad and Cordoba. The population increased to 300,000, with Arabs, Jews, Greeks and negroes rubbing shoulders with the original native inhabitants.
On fifth January 1072, following its capture by the Normans under Roger I of Hauteville and his brother Robert Guiscard, a new epoch began. In the 12th century Roger II and William II built churches and palaces, made Palermo into the glittering capital of the Monarchia Sicula and ruled with religious tolerance over Christians, Moslems and Jews alike.
In 1194 the Hohenstaufens under Henry VI, the husband of Constance, the heir to the Norman throne, gained control from the Normans. In 1198 Henry's four-year-old son Frederick II was crowned king in Palermo. As under the Normans, his court included various nationalities and religions, which produced a Sicilian school of poets who wrote in the everyday language of the people. Following the death of Frederick a decline set in 1250. In 1266 Charles of Anjou, brother of the French king, became ruler of Sicily with the aid of the Pope.

Palermo Attractions

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