Palermo

Capital and chief seaport of Sicily; population (2001) 652,700. It is also capital of Palermo province. Palermo is situated on the fertile, citrus-growing northern coastal plain of the Conca d'Oro, on a bay of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Industries include shipbuilding, steel, glass, textiles, and chemicals. Palermo is the second-largest city in Sicily, and is the most important industrial centre and port with shipbuilding facilities in southern Italy after Naples. It was founded by the Phoenicians in the 8th century BC.

Features Several buildings from Arab times still stand. The Norman-Byzantine legacy (11th-13th centuries) includes numerous churches; the magnificent Gothic cathedral containing the tomb of Frederick II; and the Palazzo dei Normanni including the Palatine Chapel with its mosaics. Today the palace houses the regional parliament of Sicily.

The bulk of the city is baroque including numerous churches and aristocratic palaces, and the royal palace and park of La Favorita beneath Monte Pellegrino. There is also a picture gallery, university (1777), and a macabre crypt of mummified bodies (19th century) in the Capuchin monastery. The city has an aristocratic tradition and an old, gloomy, and neglected appearance.

History Of Phoenician origin, Palermo became the chief town of Sicily under the Arabs (831-1072) and has continued in that position under the Normans, Angevins, Spanish, and through to the present day. In the time of the Emperor Frederick II in the 13th century it made an important contribution to Italian literature. Palermo had its main commercial and cultural flowering in the 13th century.