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If you are in search of everything Norman you cannot miss La Zisa, that comes from the Arabic, el aziz , "magnificent". This is a huge palace begun by William I in 1160, with an impressive exterior and an Islamic interior. In Corso Calatafimi 100, you will find La Cuba, that is the remains of a Norman pavilion that was once part of the same royal park as La Zisa but is now hidden away inside an army barracks The best the city has to offer is the eleventh-century church of San Giovanni dei Lebbrosi in Via Cappello. This is one of the oldest Norman churches in Sicily, founded in 1070 by Roger I. It features typical Norman slits for windows while its short tower hosts a red dome. For those with a strong stomach and a desire to be shocked go to Piazza Cappuccini to the Convento dei Cappuccini. It retained its own burial ground for several hundred years, placing its dead skeletons in niches along the corridors of the catacombs under the church, fully dressed in their everyday clothes. The bodies (some 8000 of them) were preserved by various methods of chemicals and drying processes. Sometimes the families of the deceased changed the clothes. After 1881 burials of this kind were not allowed. The stone corridors are divided according to sex and status, with different cut outs for men, women, and professional status. This is a horror film buffs heaven full of contorted, grinning decomposed skulls, and even worse still intact with skin, hair and eyes stare vacantly. There are some lying in glass coffins an antithesis to the sleeping beauty syndrome and definitely no fairy tale to walkamong them. The embalming process is proud to display the body of two-year-old Rosalia Lombardo, who died in 1920 but looks like she's simply asleep. |