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Palermo is the capital of Sicily, has about 700,000 inhabitants and is the fifth largest city in Italy. Located on the gulf of the Tyrrhenian Sea, the town is located at the exact center of the Mediterranean and covers a plain called the Plain of Palermo, once the center of the citrus growing, much to guadagnasi called Conca d 'Oro.
Palermo is a city of great wealth of art of four historical moments: the Arab-Norman architecture, the art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the Baroque art of the seventeenth century, the decorative art of the eighteenth century. In the middle of the Mediterranean, the cradle of ancient civilizations, the city has always been a crossroads of cultures between East and West. Strategic place of transit, airport privileged trade routes, landing of peoples of different races, languages and religions, Palermo has fascinated visitors and foreigners for its happy position and the beauty of the area. Even so, many have been, over the centuries, the rulers suffered. Few cities like Palermo, have kept many testimonies of the culture of the conquerors: from the Romans to the Byzantines, the Arabs and the Normans, the Swabians to the French, the Spaniards to the Austrians, all have left unmistakable traces of their stay; and almost always it is evidence of extraordinary value, because the confluence of shapes and styles, from Northern Europe to Africa, from the Middle Ages to the Baroque, has often given rise to original creations artistic, architectural and decorative.
The history of Palermo has its roots in prehistoric times and in fact the human presence in this era is evidenced by the discovery, mainly in the Monte Pellegrino and Grotte dell'Addaura, some rock engravings related Paleolithic depicting scenes on the main activities carried out in this area by primitive men.
And many are the majestic monuments of the city, as well as countless and rare beauty are its churches, among which the worth of mention the Cathedral (or Cathedral of Palermo), built in 1184 by Gualtiero Offamilio, wonderful example overlapping in a harmonious and organic styles and the Church of St. John of the Hermits, typical Norman style. From the same period is, then, the Church of St. Mary's, known as the Martorana from the name of the homonymous Eloisa Martorana, the founder of the nearby Benedictine monastery. Beautiful is the Church of the Magione, the twelfth century, invoice purely Romanesque.
Among the urban architectures remember the Norman Palace (or Palace), seat of the Sicilian Parliament and the Fontana Pretoria in 1500 located in Piazza Pretoria, that nicknamed Palermo, even for the nakedness of his statues, Piazza
della Vergogna (Piazza of the shame).
Very important is also the Teatro Massimo, one of the largest and most prestigious theaters in Europe, also famous for its acoustics the seamless, and the Teatro Politeama, both in the neoclassical style.
We should also mention the Palazzo Abatellis impressive building of Catalan Gothic style, which houses the Regional Gallery of Sicily.
Several poets, artists and writers remember Palermo in their works, from Dante to Petrarca to D'Annunzio. In particular Wolfgang Goethe, in a letter of 1787 to her friend Charlotte von Stein, called Palermo and throughout Sicily unsäglich ein schönes Land, that is "a land unutterably beautiful".
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