The Cuba Palace was built around 1180, during the reign of William II. Like the Zisa, it was one of the royal solaces in the Genoard park. The pavilion, built near a water basin, has a compact shape, lightened by blind Fatimite arches, decorated in relief on the tufa wall face. The interior and the ...

There are several interpretations of the origin of the name "Conca d'oro". It could indicate the natural characteristics of the area, i.e. the thesaurus naturae, or the auriferous sands of the Oreto river, whose etymology seems to be linked to gold. According to this interpretation Conca d'oro deriv...

The Altofonte park was created at the behest of Roger II and was located south-west of Palermo, in woodland areas. Before long, the park was also equipped with a palace that was used as a royal residence during hunting trips. The palace was strategically located, almost dominating the Conca d'Oro an...

The Oreto River flows through the Oreto Valley. Its basin touches the territories of Altofonte, Monreale and Palermo. Its source is in the Conca d'Ora, south of the city of Palermo, and it extends for about 20 kilometres until it flows into the Tyrrhenian Sea....

Genoard, from the Arabic for Paradise Garden, occupied the western part of the Palermo plain. Sollatium buildings inspired by the Persian model, such as the Cuba, the Zisa, the Cuba Soprana and the Scibene, were located within the park. A grand Islamic garden, it was a place of pleasures filled with...

We have little news about the poet Pietro da Eboli. He is remembered not only for being the author of the Liber ad Honorem Augusti, where in a miniature he appears portrayed with tonsure, so it is thought to have been a cleric, but also of a didactic work, the De balneis Puteolanis, a piece on the c...

The Liber was written during a long and troubled period, most likely between the end of 1194, when Emperor Henry VI finally took possession of southern Italy, after defeating his rival, Tancred, and 1197, the year of his death. The work, dedicated to Henry VI himself, whose praises and deeds he prai...

Roger, known as the Great Count, was responsible for the conquest of Sicily, together with his brother Robert Guiscard. After the 1061 landing in Messina and the surrender of the city, the Normans invaded the Val Demone almost without difficulty and, with the town of Rometta, many strongholds fell. ...

Sicily was under Arab rule for about two hundred years, from 827 to 1072. During the Arab rule, the island enjoyed a period of economic and cultural prosperity. New cultivation techniques were introduced, water resources were rationalized, mosques were built (it is not by chance that Palermo, the se...

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...