Son of Henry VI of Hohenstaufen and Constance of Hauteville, Frederick II was born in Jesi on 26 November 1194. He was King of Sicily (1198), King of Jerusalem (1225) and Emperor (1220). Orphaned at the age of four, he was entrusted to the guardianship of Pope Innocent III before being crowned Emper...

The Constance of Aragon’s crown, found in the tomb of Frederick II's first wife, was made in the workshop of the Royal Palace in Palermo. Dating from before 1222, the date of the queen's death, the work can be traced back to Norman production due to the refined gold filigree on the cap, the rough ...

The sovereign, born in 1120, was the fourth son of Roger II and Elvira of Castile. Educated at the court of Palermo, permeated by Arab culture, he was said to spend most of his time entertaining himself, often neglecting administrative affairs. Associated with his father's throne in 1151, he was cro...

The Zisa, coming from the Arabic word for splendid, stood within the magnificent Genoard park. The construction of the palace began with William I and was completed by his successor, William II. The Zisa was the king's summer residence and is one of the highest expressions of loca solatiorum. The em...

The worship of Saints Peter and Paul, considered to be the champions of the Christian Church, spread to Sicily with the advent of the Normans, during the process of Latinisation and Christianisation of the island. The medieval chronicler Goffredo Malaterra notes that the Norman victory against the S...

In 1185, Palermo Cathedral was dedicated and consecrated to the Blessed Virgin of the Assumption. The Assumption of Mary is one of the dogmas of the Catholic Church. Although it began to spread at the end of the 4th and beginning of the 5th century AD, it was not until 1950 that Pope Pius XII procla...

The Byzantine Church of Santa Domenica Kuriacia was dedicated to Saint Kyriaki, or Santa Domenica di Tropea, and stood in the western countryside, near the village of Rocca. Later donated to the monastery of Santa Maria Nuova, it was probably the seat of the diocese of Palermo during the Arab domina...

Arab geographer and traveller, Ibn Hawqal was born in Nisibin in 943. After spending his youth in Baghdad, he travelled for about 30 years, even reaching Western India, and in 973 he arrived in Sicily. Upon returning to his home town, he wrote the work Kitāb al-masālik wa l-mamālik, translated a...

The Gami Mosque, built on the site of an early Byzantine settlement, was a large building open for worship, as its name suggests, on Fridays. Re-adapted by the Aghlabid dynasty, sources say that it could accommodate seven thousand people and was distinguished by its size and magnificence. Square in ...

The triumphal arch, usually built to commemorate a victory in war or an important event, first appeared in Ancient Rome as a purely celebratory element and was then widely used in the Imperial age. Its shape is that of a large arch-shaped doorway. It may have one or more fornixes, i.e. openings, and...