La Zisa
La Zisa , also known as Castello della Zisa or simply Zisa for short , is a palace in the west of Palermo that was the summer residence of the Norman kings of Sicily . It is located in the former "Parco Nuovo", the part of the royal park to the west of the city . Along with La Cuba , another palace in this former park, La Zisa is one of the best-preserved Norman palaces in Sicily. Inside the palace is the Museum of Islamic Art .
history
La Zisa was started in 1165 under Wilhelm I and completed in 1167 under his son Wilhelm II . You can clearly see Norman and Arab influences . This is due to the fact that the majority of the craftsmen and construction workers involved were Arabs , who at that time still made up a large proportion of the population of Sicily. The name of the castle also has its origins in Arabic, it is derived from al-ʿazīz (mighty, strong). The castle was located in the royal park , and in front of its main facade, which is oriented roughly east towards the city, there was a large water basin.
In the 14th century the Zisa was expanded into a fortress. It later came into private hands. During a plague epidemic in 1624, the zisa was used as a store for items that were apparently in contact with plague pathogens. The nature of these objects can no longer be determined today. In 1635 the palace was acquired by the de Sandoval family and converted into a baroque palace. In 1806 it was inherited by the Notarbartolo family , who partially restored it. In 1951 the Zisa came into state ownership. The baroque renovations were reversed as early as the 1950s. After the partial collapse of ceilings and wall cladding in October 1971, extensive restoration work began in 1972.
After the restoration was completed, the Zisa was opened to the public again. Today it houses Palermo's Museum of Islamic Art .
The outer
La Zisa is a cube-shaped building with three floors and a height of 25.70 m. Risalits protrude in the middle of the two narrow sides , which act as ventilation shafts for air conditioning of the interior. These risalites have small tower towers that protrude from the top of the building.
On the main facade, three ogival entrances lead into the building. The middle one is larger and more splendid than the one on the side and extends to the first floor. Its pointed arch rests on a pair of pillars on both sides.
The facade is only structured by flat blind arches. A narrow, straight ledge runs between the first and second floors around the entire building, emphasizing the horizontal orientation.
Originally, a frieze with an Arabic inscription, as can still be seen today in the Cuba, formed a straight upper end of the building. During a renovation in the Middle Ages, this frieze was replaced by the battlements that still exist today.
The baroque roof structures that were added during the renovation of the Zisa by the de Sandoval family are set back from the edge of the building and can therefore only be seen from a distance.
The inner
The ogival passages of the main facade lead into a vestibule , which extends as a long corridor along the main facade across the whole building and also has an arched passage to the side facades. The other rooms on the ground floor and the stairwells that lead to the upper floors can be reached from this vestibule.
Directly opposite the central pointed arch, a passage with a large arch resting on double columns leads from the vestibule into the large two-story audience hall in the center of the building. This hall has a niche opposite the entrance and on both sides, which is closed at the top by muqarnas . Only part of the mosaic that adorned the walls has survived. In the niche opposite the entrance there is a paradise fountain, from which the water flowed over an inclined plate into a channel set into the floor, which flowed through the middle of the hall and expanded into several small basins. Outside, the canal in the central axis of the building led to a water basin in front of the castle.
The other rooms on the ground floor and on the first floor are arranged on both sides of this hall. On the first floor, the two sides are connected by a narrow corridor at the rear of the building. On the second floor there is also a large hall in the middle, above the audience hall. Since the floor is inclined towards the center, it is assumed that it was an atrium with impluvium , which was probably only roofed over during the renovation in the 17th century by the de Sandoval family.
park
In front of the castle is the water basin into which the water from the Paradise Fountain flowed. In the middle, the base of the pavilion can still be seen, which originally stood in the pool and was accessible via a footbridge.
As an extension of the water canal that led into this basin, a park with green areas and a water canal was created in 2005, which flows through cascades and rectangular basins through the green area.
In 1972 the remains of a Roman aqueduct and a thermal bath were discovered north of the palace. Also north of the Zisa is the Cappella della Santissima Trinità alla Zisa .
literature
- Brigit Carnabuci: Sicily. Greek temples, Roman villas, Norman cathedrals and baroque cities in the center of the Mediterranean (= DuMont art travel guide ). 6th, updated edition. DuMont Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2011, ISBN 978-3-7701-4385-6 .
- Museum Without Borders (Ed.): Arab-Norman Art - Sicily's Culture in the Middle Ages . International cycle of exhibitions on Islamic art in the Mediterranean, Ernst Wasmuth Verlag Tübingen Berlin, 2004, ISBN 3-8030-4102-3
- Chris Gravett: Atlas of Castles. The most beautiful castles and palaces . Tosa, Vienna 2001, p. 122, ISBN 3-85492-470-4 .
- Hans-Rudolf Meier : The Norman royal palaces in Palermo. Studies on high medieval residential architecture . Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 1994, pp. 68–79, 122–126, ISBN 3-88462-941-7 .
- Ursula Staacke: Un palazzo normanno a Palermo: La zisa. La cultura musulmana negli edifici dei Re . Ricerche e documenti, Palermo 1991.
- Adolph Goldschmidt : The Norman royal palaces in Palermo , magazine for building, vol. 48, 1898, pp. 542-590 with illustrations on sheet 56-59 in the atlas
Web links
- La Zisa. (PDF, 1.7 MB) In: Palermo ei suoi giardini nell'età arabo normanna. Scuola Media “Falcone e Borsellino” Lascari, pp. 65–71 , accessed on March 26, 2009 (Italian).
Coordinates: 38 ° 7 ′ 0 ″ N , 13 ° 20 ′ 28 ″ E