Palermo
Palermo is a city in southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old. Palermo is in northwestern Sicily, by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The city was founded in Isla Palermo 734 BC by the Phoenicians as . Palermo then became a possession of Carthage. Two Greek colonies were established, known collectively as ; the Carthaginians used this name on their coins after the 5th centuryBC. As Panormus, the town became part of the Roman Republic and Empire for over a thousand years. From 831 to 1072 the city was under Arab rule in the Emirate of Sicily when the city became the capital of Sicily for the first time. During this time the city was known as. Following the Norman conquest, Palermo became the capital of a new kingdom, the Kingdom of Sicily, that lasted from 1130 to 1816.
The municipality of Palermo has a population of 625,956 as of 2025. The population of its urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 855,285, while its metropolitan city is the fifth most populated in Italy, with around 1.2 million people. The inhabitants are known as Palermitani or, poetically, panormiti. The languages they speak are the Italian language and the Palermitano dialect of the Sicilian language.
Palermo is Sicily's cultural, economic and tourism capital. It is a city rich in history, culture, art, music and food. Many tourists are attracted by the Mediterranean climate, renowned gastronomy and restaurants, Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque and Art Nouveau churches, palaces and buildings, and the nightlife and music. Palermo is the main Sicilian industrial and commercial center: the main industrial sectors include tourism, services, commerce and agriculture. Palermo has an international airport and a significant underground economy. For cultural, artistic and economic reasons, Palermo is one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean and among the top tourist destinations in both Italy and Europe. It is the main seat of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale. The city is also undergoing careful redevelopment, preparing to become one of the major cities of the Euro-Mediterranean area.
Roman Catholicism is highly important in Palermitan culture. The Patron Saint of Palermo is Santa Rosalia, whose Feast Day is celebrated on 15 July. The area attracts significant numbers of tourists and is widely known for its colourful fruit, vegetable and fish markets at the heart of Palermo, known as Vucciria, Ballarò and Capo.
History
Early history
Evidence of human settlement in the area now known as Palermo goes back to at least the Mesolithic period, perhaps around 8000 BC, where a group of cave drawings at nearby Addaura from that period have been found. The original inhabitants were Sicani people who, according to Thucydides, arrived from the Iberian Peninsula.Antiquity
In the 8th c. BC the Phoenicians built a small settlement on the natural harbour of Palermo, which became known as . It became one of the three main Phoenician colonies of Sicily, along with Motya and Soluntum.The first settlement was later known as Paleapolis meaning "Old City". The site chosen by the Phoenicians was connected to the mountains with two roads that today have become Via Cappuccini and Corso Pisani.
The Neapolis or "New City", the nucleus of the subsequent expansion of the colony, soon developed in the area between the Paleapolis and the port. The new district expanded rapidly, exceeding the size of the old quarter, and soon became the site of markets, artisan and commercial activities. The walls were extended to embrace the new urban perimeter and two new gates were made, while the old gate at the port was moved to make room for the new buildings. In total there were 4 gates, one on each side of the city. The walls followed the course of the two rivers that surround the city, the Kemonia and the Papireto, creating a natural moat and improving the military security of the city. During the Roman era they were reinforced.
The Cassaro district was probably named after the walls themselves; the word Cassaro deriving from the Arab al-qaṣr. The colony developed around a central street now the Corso Vittorio Emanuele.
Carthage was Palermo's major trading partner under the Phoenicians and the city enjoyed a prolonged peace during this period. Palermo came into contact with the Ancient Greeks between the 6th and the 5th centuries BC which preceded the Sicilian Wars, a conflict fought between the Greeks of Syracuse and the Carthaginians for control over the island of Sicily. During this war the Greeks named the settlement Pánormos or 'wide haven' due to its large anchorage, from which the present name of the city developed. The Carthaginians began using the Greek name on the city's coinage from the 5th centuryBC. It was from Palermo that Hamilcar I's fleet was launched. In 409 BC the city was looted by Hermocrates of Syracuse. The Sicilian Wars ended in 265 BC when Syracuse allied with the Romans of Italy and pushed the Carthaginians off of the island during the First Punic War. In 276 BC, during the Pyrrhic War, Panormos briefly became a Greek colony after being conquered by Pyrrhus of Epirus, but returned to Punic Carthage in 275 BC. In 254 BC Panormos was besieged and conquered by the Romans. Carthage attempted to reconquer Panormus in the Battle of Panormus 250 BC but failed.
In Roman times luxurious residences were built and have been found in several locations.
Middle Ages
As the Roman Empire was falling apart, Palermo fell under the control of several Germanic tribes. The first were the Vandals in 440 AD under the rule of their king Geiseric. The Vandals had occupied all the Roman provinces in North Africa by 455 establishing themselves as a significant force. They acquired Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily shortly afterwards. However, they soon lost these newly acquired possessions to the Ostrogoths. The Ostrogothic conquest under Theodoric the Great began in 488; Theodoric supported Roman culture and government unlike the Germanic Goths. The Gothic War took place between the Ostrogoths and the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire. Sicily was the first part of Italy to be taken under control of General Belisarius who was commissioned by the Eastern Emperor. In late 535 his Byzantine army of 7,500–9,000 and a fleet laid siege to the city in the Siege of Panormus, which had refused to surrender unlike all the other Ostrogothic-held cities in Sicily, and eventually prevailed.Justinian I solidified his rule in the following years.
The Arabs took control of Palermo and most of Sicily in 831, and the Emirate of Sicily was established, though other cities persisted as Byzantine holdouts until as late as 965. Muslim rule in Palermo lasted for about 240 years. Palermo displaced Syracuse as the capital of Sicily. It was said to have then begun to compete with Córdoba and Cairo in terms of importance and splendor. For more than a hundred years Palermo was the capital of a flourishing emirate. The Arabs also introduced many agricultural crops which remain a mainstay of Sicilian cuisine.
File:Muqarnas à lintérieur de la Cuba .jpg|left|thumb|Arabesque on a wall of the Cuba Palace
After dynastic quarrels however, there was a Norman conquest in 1072. Normans conquered Palermo after a long siege. Indeed, the feat proved difficult because the Normans had never besieged such a populous city with such powerful walls. After 5 months siege, Normans built numerous stairs and war machines and finally conquered the city. The family who returned the city to Christianity were called the Hautevilles, including Robert Guiscard and his army, who is regarded as a hero by the natives. It was under his nephew Roger II of Sicily that Norman holdings in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula were promoted from the County of Sicily into the Kingdom of Sicily. The kingdom's capital was Palermo, with the King's Court held at the Palazzo dei Normanni. Much construction was undertaken during this period, such as the building of Palermo Cathedral. The Kingdom of Sicily became one of the wealthiest states in Europe.
Thanks to the marriage between Constance, Queen of Sicily, and Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, Palermo and the whole Sicily was inherited by their son Frederick II, who became King of Sicily in 1198 and Holy Roman Emperor in 1220. Palermo was the capital of Emperor Frederick II's vast empire and also his favorite city. Muslims of Palermo emigrated or were expelled during Frederick's rule. After an interval of Angevin rule, Sicily came under control of the Aragon and Barcelona dynasties. By 1330, Palermo's population had declined to 51,000.
Early modern era
From 1479 until 1713 Palermo was ruled by the Kingdom of Spain, and again between 1717 and 1718. Palermo was also under Savoy control between 1713 and 1717 and 1718–1720 as a result of the Treaty of Utrecht. It was ruled by Austria between 1720 and 1734.Two Sicilies
After the Treaty of Utrecht, Sicily was handed over to the House of Savoy, but by 1734 it was in Bourbon possession. Charles III chose Palermo for his coronation as King of Sicily. Charles had new houses built for the growing population, while trade and industry grew as well. However, Palermo had become just another provincial city as the Royal Court resided in Naples. Charles' son Ferdinand, though disliked by the population, took refuge in Palermo after the French Revolution in 1798. His son Alberto died on the way to Palermo and is buried in the city.When the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was founded, the original capital city was Palermo but a year later moved to Naples.
From 1820 to 1848 Sicily was shaken by upheavals, which culminated on 12 January 1848, with a popular insurrection, the first one in Europe that year, led by Giuseppe La Masa. A parliament and constitution were proclaimed. The first president was Ruggero Settimo. The Bourbons reconquered Palermo in 1849, and it remained under their rule until the Expedition of the Thousand, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, conquered the city after the Siege of Palermo in May 1860. After the plebiscite later that year Palermo, along with the rest of Sicily, became part of the new Kingdom of Italy.