The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-12-06
CITY 0 F PALERMO
One OF the Most Ancient Me-
tropoIises of Europe.
FOUNDED BEFORE ROME
Its History a Most Interesting
Story of Action.

10 TIC NEW lOlh JOSlt
Palermo, Dec. 5.-Palmero is one of the
most ancient cities in Europe, and has al
ways been place of political Importance
1T was d colony from Phoenicia, oder
than any of the Greek cities of Sicily,
and may have been planted as far back
as the~days of Hiram, the Tyrian ally
of King Solomon, long before the date
TO which tradition assigns the founding
of Rome. Nor can any one who sees it
wonder at its fortunes. 1t stands in the
curve of a magnificent semicircular bay,
guarded at both ends by bold and lofty
mountains, with a plain behind it of I'M
surpassed fertility. enclosed by ring of
mountains whence streams available for
irrigation descend. This plain-commonly
called the Golden Shell-with the deep
green Of its orange and lemon groves,
with vines and gray olives on the lower
slopes of the hills behind, the white mass
of the city in the center. and the brilliant
blue of the bay framed by the majestic
capes which enclose 1t on either side,
makes a landscape such as few great
cities can show. Constantinople, Car
thage, Lisbon, San Francisco, Mexico,
Naples itself. are none of them set in a
that it was not natural beauty that led
the early Phoenicians 10 fix themselves
here What attracted them was a small
well-sheltered harbor, brancing into two
arms where their little vessels could ride
in safety. Round its shores, and espe-
cially on the tongue between the arms
they built their homes and strengthened
the settlement by walls. all traces Of
which have long since vanished. OF the
ancient harbor only one arm now remains,
the inlet which the people call the Gala
or Old Port, now used by fishing-boats
and small coasting craft, while the
steamers and large vessels line under
the new mole nearly a mile away. Sue
cessive buildings and successive destruc-
tons during twenty-five centuries or
more have changed the line of the shore;
the upper end of the old haven has been
filled up, and Spanish fort occupies part
OF what was the northwestern arm. But
the importance of the harbor and the
fertility of the plain behind had, long be-
fore vessels grew SO much bigger that
the old haven was useless for them, fully
established Palermo as the capital of the
island, superior not only to decayed SYRIA
citiesof great importance in the Middle
Ages, and both of them now again pros
porous as buy centers of commerce.
Originally a practically autonomous col
ony of Sidon or Tyre, perhaps as old as
Carthage herself Palermo presently be-
came dependent on Carthage, and was
held by her great American sister until
the Romans captured her in the course
OF the First Punic war. She was never
Greek. though Pyrrhus once seized her,
and though her name-Panormos, the
All-Haven-is Greek, and perhaps trans
lates the lost Phoenician name. She
was great town and great strong
hold under the Romans, and afterwards
under the Arabian emirs of the ninth and
tenth centuries. But her architectural in
tercst begins with the Norman kings of
Sicily who loved TO dwell here, and who
transmitted their attachment to their de-
scendant, the Emperor Frederick the Sec
ond (of the great Hohenstaufen line)-
That wonderful ruler spent here. in a
palace whose scanty remains lie about
two miles to the southeast of the city,
most of the time he could spare from
progresses through -Ialy and Germany.
and directed from hence his unending
contest with the Papacy. When the
crown of Sicily hau been grasped by
Charles of Anjou, it was here that the
insurrection OF me Siciiian Vespers shook
of French domination, and it was here
that the Aragonese kings and log after
wards the viceroys OF the kings of Spain
held their court.
In large and fourishing cities, continu-
t,,clN- ipb al ,ftaJ fhroryh long succession,
Of centres, the architectural records of
earlier ages usually become obliterated
by the demonstrations of later times. So
st has been in Palermo. There are no
traces of Carthaginian work, and very
few of Roman work. Even from the
Arab period only two or three buildings,
one OF them a mosque turned into a (now
deserted) church. and none of them of
artistic Importance, still survive. The
architectural history of the city prac-
ically begins with the days of the Nor
man kings, from which several noble
churches remain. One of these, the ca
thedral in which Frederick the Second,
his wife Constantia, and his father the
Emperor Henry the Sixth. are buried
has been so wofully modernized within
that one can form little idea of its orig
inal aspect; but the exterior, though de-
formed by an eighteenth-century cupola,
IS extremely rich and picturesque. The
bther three are specially remarkable for
their mosiacs Of the eleventh and twelfth
centuries, apparently executed by artists
brought from Constantinople, for they
have thoroughly Byzantine character
and the Inscriptions on them are mostly
in Greek. Those in the exquisite little
chapel OF the Norman palaCe-castle, the
most beautiful pal3ce-chapel in the world,
and those of the vast and splendid ca
thedral Of Monreale, on 4 hin four miles
from the city. are Uogeiner with the
contemporaneous mosaics of Cefalu. forty
miles TO the eastward ON the north coast
of the islandl the finest examples II
mosaic work to be found anywhere. They
are superior in grace and finish even 10
the mosaiCs OF Ravenna and to those
that have survived the hands of modern
roStorers in the ancient churches Of Rome
and St Marks at Venice. Many are
nobly conceived: some show kind OF
vigorous realism which one scarcely ex-
pectcs in Byzantine art. II need hardl~
be said that IL is only in Sicily. and in a
Very few cities of Italy (cnlefly in those
which I have uamedl. and. OF course, also
In CcnStantinople and in Salonika. that
specimens may be studied of this art.
practically tho only form OF pictorial art
which remains TO as from the centuries
that lie between The destruction Of Pom
reii and the days OF Cimabue and Giotto.
IN these Palermitan churches. and in
others belonging to the thirteenth and
fourteentheenturie>. orc discovers a very