{ Chapter One }

It was called lo stradone di Mezzo Monreale, built during the reign of Viceroy Marcantonio Colonna, who wanted to establish an easier connection with Monreale by creating a road that was an extension of the Cassaro beyond Porta Nuova. The name was changed to Corso Calatafimi in 1860, in honor of the city of Calatafimi, where Garibaldi’s first victorious battle took place. Its name derives from the Arabic Qal’at Fîmî, or Castle of Eufemio, probably in honor of Eufemio da Messina, a rebel Byzantine officer who invited the Arabs to invade Sicily in the ninth century. https://www.palermoviva.it/una-via-al-giorno-corso-calatafimi/.

Via Mezzomonreale

Famous for its catacombs. Here the bodies of priests and friars, aristocrats and wealthy citizens — adults as well as children — were dried by the Capuchins, dressed in their best finery, and hung in the underground passages. The catacombs contain about 8000 corpses and over 1,000 mummies. Known today as the Capuchin Monastery.

convent of the Capuchins

Duke of Tagliacozzo, an Italian aristocrat from an ancient Roman family. He is best remembered as the admiral of the Papal fleet at the Battle of Lepanto, where he triumphed and was subsequently rewarded with the position of Viceroy of Sicily by King Philip II of Spain.

During his viceroyalty he built the elegant promenade on the Marina, and extended the Cassaro to the sea, where he erected the monumental gate Porta Felice, named after his wife Felice Orsini. AC, 57.

Marcantonio Colonna

Castiglione is a municipality in the province of Catania, in a hilly area on the northern slope of Mount Etna. Of ancient Greek origins, it was called Castel Leone in the Middle Ages. Since the seventeenth century many convents of the most important religious orders were founded there. AC, 60.

my name is Blasco da Castiglione

The Real Teatro dei Santa Cecilia (patron saint of musicians) was founded by the Unione dei Music with the help of the nobility and Viceroy Uzeda and inaugurated on October 28, 1693. Until the construction of the neoclassical theatres Politeama, Massimo, and Biondo, it was the most important theater, where the musical repertoire (sacred, lyric, and symphonic) was represented. It ceased activity in 1888. Restoration of the theater began in 2009 and in April 2016 it began to host concerts and cultural events of the Brass group Foundation.

See: https://www.brassgroup.it/real-teatro-santa-cecilia/

Teatro dei Musici

The title given to the Franciscan convent in the eighteenth century. Over the centuries it took on the appellation San Francesco ai Cintorinai or San Francesco li Chiovara, that from time to time was given to the medieval road on which it was built, where workshops of the cintorinai, sellers of belts and finishes for mounts, and those of sellers of nails (chiodi) and hardware. AC, 60-61.

San Francesco dei Chiovari

Baroque piazza, officially known as Piazza Vigilena (named after the Marchese di Vigilena, Viceroy of Sicily). The four near-identical facades facing the piazza contain fountains, and statues of the four seasons, the four Spanish kings (Philip II, III, Philip IV, Charles V) and the four patron saints (Sant’Olivia, Sant’Agata, Santa Christina, Santa Ninfa).

See: Adriana Chirco and Mario di Liberto, Quattro Canti di Palermo: L’Ottogono del Sole.

the Quattro Canti

Photos: Quattro Canti di Palermo: L’Ottagano del Sole, Adriana Chirco (Dario Flaccovio Editore)

Quattro Canti in 1761

Charles V, Philip II, Philip IV, Philip III

S. Cristina, S. Ninfa, S. Oliva, S. Agata

According to the historian Marchese di Villabianca, the name derives from a fondaco called dei Messinesi. According to legend, however, this was the home of a disreputable woman from Messina. AC, 61.

the inn of the Messinese

Roger I, a Norman nobleman and member of the House of Hauteville, defeated a Muslim army at the battle of Cerami in June 1063. After taking Palermo in 1072, Robert Guiscard, his brother, as suzerain, invested Roger with the title Count of Sicily.