Kalsa or Mandamento Tribunali is a historical quarter of the Italian city of Palermo in Sicily. It is sometimes referred to as la Kalsa or the Kalsa. [1]
Kalsa or Mandamento Tribunali is a historical quarter of the Italian city of Palermo in Sicily. It is sometimes referred to as la Kalsa or the Kalsa. [1]
The common name of the quarter, Kalsa, derives from the district's historic Arabic name, al-Khāliṣa (الخالصة), meaning "the chosen one". [1] The formal name of the quarter, Mandamento Tribunali, meaning "district of courts", derives from the presence of Inquisition courts at the Palazzo Chiaramonte-Steri.
In ancient times, most of the area now known as the Kalsa was underwater. Hamilcar and Hannibal used to dock their ships there as they prepared their attacks on the Greek city of Himera. The walls of a Punic city occupied by the Phoenicians and Carthaginians once extended to the confluence of the Papyrus and Kemonia rivers, near what is now the intersection of Via Roma and Via Vittorio Emanuele. [1]
Built in the ninth century, Al-Khalesa was one of the first planned Arab settlements in Europe. It was the administrative center of the city of Balarm (Palermo), which was under Arab rule until it was conquered by the Normans in 1072. [1] Around 937, the Arabs moved their base from Al-Kasr (today the Cassaro, or castle district) to Al-Khalesa and built a fortified palace near the port. [2]
In the 970s, Palermo expanded into a major Muslim city comparable to Cairo or Córdoba. In addition to housing the emir and his court, Al-Khalesa contained the arsenal and prison, baths, a mosque, and government offices. There were no shops or markets in the area. It was surrounded by a stone wall with four gates, the best known being the Bab al-bahr or Marine Gate, on the shore. [2]
The center of Al-Khalesa was located near what is now Piazza Kalsa. Much of the square's current "Arabesque" architecture, such as the Greek Gate, is the product of 16th-century Spanish Moorish revival movements and cannot be traced directly to the emirate of Balarm. The area still has narrow, winding streets, as it did in the 11th century. [1]
After the Normans captured Palermo, they preferred to move their headquarters to higher ground, back to the Cassaro. The Kalsa became an Arab neighborhood with markets and mosques, [3] but eventually, just as in the rest of Sicily, Islam would disappear from the island by the early 13th century. [4]
The Kalsa district was heavily bombed during World War II, and was abandoned for decades. It attracted poor squatters, many of whom lived in the bombed-out ruins. [5] Sicilian-American novelist Dodici Azpadu describes it as an "Arab ghetto." [6] The area has since been revitalized and is home to art galleries, restored churches and palaces, and other tourist attractions. [7]
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Kalsa is delimited by:
On summer evenings, Kals'art, an arts festival, is held in the streets of Kalsa.
Churches
City gates Palaces |
Theatres Public squares
| Fountains Oratories Other sights
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Quattro Canti, officially known as Piazza Vigliena, is a Baroque square in Palermo, region of Sicily, Italy; it is considered the center of the historic quarters of the city. The site is the intersection of two major streets in Palermo, the Via Maqueda and the Corso Vittorio Emanuele, and at this intersection are the corners of all four of the ancient quarters of Palermo: the Kalsa (SE); Seralcadi (SW); Albergaria (wW); and Castellammare (NE). On the southwest corner stands the church of San Giuseppe dei Padre Teatini. A few steps away along the flank of this church, behind the Southeast corner building, along Via Maqueda is the Piazza and Fontana Pretoria, sandwiched between this church and Santa Caterina. A few more steps reaches San Cataldo and the ancient Norman church of La Martorana. About 500 meters west along the Cassaro is the piazza of the Cathedral of Palermo and the adjacent Palazzo Normani.
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Piazza Pretoria, also known as Square of Shame, is at the limits of the district of Kalsa, near the corner of Cassaro with Via Maqueda, just a few meters from the Quattro Canti, the intersection where all the four ancient quarters intersect, in the city of Palermo, region of Sicily, Italy.
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Porta Felice is a monumental city gate of Palermo, Sicily; the gate is located in the zone of the Foro Italico and the Castellammare quarter. It represents the water-side entrance into what was formerly known as Via Cassaro, the most ancient main street of the city, but renamed Via Vittorio Emanuele after Italian unification. The gate was built in Renaissance and Baroque styles between the 16th and 17th centuries.
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Coordinates: 38°06′58″N13°22′08″E / 38.11611°N 13.36889°E
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