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History of
Palermo
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Originally
a Phoenician, then a Carthaginian colony, Palermo was long
considered a prize worth capturing. Named Panormus (All Harbour),
under Saracen and Norman rule in the ninth to twelfth centuries
Palermo became the greatest city in Europe, famed for the wealth
of its court and for a centre of learning.
It first
settlement were however of prehistoric origins and is now worth
as one of the most ancient sites of Sicily with painting being
discovered in the grottoes of Addaura in 1953.
The origins
of the city population seem to have been the one of the Matabei
from Jordan.
According
to official historic document, the Phoenician established a
merchant colony in around 734 B.C, while the Greeks colonized
Sicily between the VII and VIII century B.C.
In later
time, during the Punic Wars, Palermo conquered by the
Carthaginians until the Roman?s rule which gave the city the
name of Panourmus.
During this
time the city become a flourishing legacy of the Roman Empire
providing well known supply for Rome.
Later, the
city was under the Byzantines until year 831 when the Arabs
captured Palermo and made it the capital of Sicily becoming one
of the most important Islamic cities in the Mediterranean world.
During this period, Palermo was one of the greatest cities in
Europe, with flourishing trade, culture and education.
The Normans
entered the city in 1072 ending the Arab rule.
The Normans
restored Christianity as the official religion and declared
Palermo to be the capital of the island. A hint of cultural
cosmopolitanism
was although retained and Christianity lived along with Muslims
and Jewish.
The wedding between Henry VI and Norman
Constance of Hauteville signed the end of the Normans in Sicily
which from then was ruled by the German house of Swabia later
becoming part of the Holy Roman Empire
Then, Sicily came under the house of the Anjou
who transferred the capital to Naples, then the Aragons, under
which the Jews were expelled and a state of Holy inquisition
established. In 1479 the city was part of the kingdom of Spain.
Due to unsocial unrest mainly for the imposition
of heavy taxes, the barons felt free to dominate the city.
After a short hand over to the Savoia, in 1734
the city was confirmed a Bourbon possession with the
proclamation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Although there were some popular insurrections,
the Bourbons ruled until Giuseppe Garibaldi and Sicily?s
annexation to the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
Onwards, Palermo history followed that of Italy
and most graceful the one of the Mafia which from a rural
phenomena become an international criminal organization also
thanks to its links with the political agenda. Not to be
forgotten the Italian civil servant that lost their life in the
struggle against the mafia, above all in Palermo, Generale Carlo
Dalla Chiesa with his wife, Regional president Piersanti
Pattarella, priest Don Giuliani, and the magistrates Giovanni
Falcone and Paolo Borsellino together with their police
official?s escort.
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