Lecture 7

Palermo, Mediterranean City

ilprof.

ukulele academy

finland

Mediterranean vs. Anglo-American City

• Rich literature about cities in Northern Europe and USA

• ‘Gap in information’ about Southern Europe

• ‘The history of Mediterranean is the history of cities’ (Giner 1984): overpopulated and dense urban centres (Naples, Cairo, Costantinople)

Vertical and Horizontal Differentiation

• Mediterranean city is a patchwork of economic activity and social classes throughout the urban fabric (vertical differentiation). Working and middle classes are mixed

• Anglo-American city is segregated. Working class areas are clearly defined.

Economic Activities

• Anglo-American cities have a neat organisation of economic activities

• Mediterranean cities have a disorderly urban tissue, a patchwork of economic activities (inheritance of the workshop structure of the preindustrial era and maintenance of the proximity of workplace and residence).

Illegalities

• Informalities in the constitution of suburban communities

• Immigrants and proletariat living outside the official norms regulating the city

• Illegal use (zoning laws and building codes)

• Illegal building

• Illegal occupation (squatting)

• Informal sector of urban economies

Palermo

• Historic centre 250 ha, 30.000 inhabitants

(660.000)

• Strong identity

• Recognisable role in the wider urban context

• Direct access to the water (Cala)

Palermo Historical Centre

• Crossed by the Cassaro (Via Marmorea or Via Toledo, Via Vittorio Emmanuele), main E/W medieval axis between the Royal palace and the sea

• Streets are parallel to the Cassaro are irregular and follow the topography of a promontory between Papireto and Kemonia rivers, now covered

• Via Maqueda, built in 1500 by Viceroy Maqueda, crosses the Cassaro (axis of development rotated of 90º)

• Town divided into 4 mandamenti

Quattro Canti

• The two streets intersect at the Quattro Canti• The geographical and symbolical centre of the city,

where statues of Spanish kings and Viceroys were placed

• Surrounded by churches and palaces• S/W area of the square was part of the church of San

Giuseppe dei Teatini (powerful religious order)• State and Church as absolute rule over the city• The Quattro Canti represents the monument to the

rulers and to the imposed order over the city

Changes in the Centre

• 17th – 18th century: all buildings were modified according to the baroque culture

• The town began to expand beyond its walls

• New plan with chequered layout and rectangular blocks, construction of Via Roma (N/S axis) connecting harbour and railway station

• Dismantling of the walls and the bastions

La Conca d’Oro

• Surroundings of Palermo, planted with gardens of lemons and oranges

• 18. century: La Conca d’Oro became the favourite place of retreat for the landed aristocracy living in the city (latifondisti)

• They wanted to escape the unhealthy summer in the city

• A series of villas was built around the urban area

19. Century

• The middle class and the aristocratic started moving in suburbs, north and south of the city centre

• Modern town with public gardens and theatres

• The city centre was left to immigrants and newcomers from the countryside

• Slow decay

Piana dei Colli and Bagheria

• Roads were laid out and new quarters were constructed

• Social life shifted from the Quattro Canti to the Quattro Canti di Campagna

• The city also expanded towards the sea: Marina, walk along the seaside became an elegant walkway

• The aristocracy clustered in Piana dei Colli (N) and Bagheria (S)

Piazza Marchese di Regalmici

Quattro Canti di Campagna

Quattro Canti

20th century

• II WW bombing

• No public or private estate management practices, conservation programmes (army, Church, university owned historical buildings)

• Progressive departure of the inhabitants

• Degradation and incorrect use of the buildings

Immigrants as the new City Centre Dwellers

• From the 1990s on, steady legal and illegal immigration, mainly from Africa (Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria) and Asia (Philippines, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka)

• Large demand for housing• Informal illegal jobs, exploitation and

marginalisation• No rise in social tension

Piano Particolareggiato Esecutivo (PPE)

• Today Palermo is one of the few large Italian cities with a local executive plan for the restoration and conservation of the city centre

• Commissioned in 1988 to Benevolo, Cervellati and Insolera

• Supported by a political coalition, intellectuals, cultural and voluntary associations

• Based on the analysis of the land registers and of the historic urban texture and on the classifying of buildings according to their typologies (public buildings, religious house, church, common housing, aristocratic palace)

Multicultural City

• Diverse foreign domination

• Architectonic heritage

• The rediscovery of San Benedetto il Moro

• Contemporary situation in the city centre

Uprisings in Palermo

• 4 uprisings in the 19. century: 1820 – 1848 – 1850s – 1860

Giuseppe Garibaldi in Palermo 1860

Battle of Palermo

• Garibaldi arrived in Sicily with the Mille and was helped by Sicilian squadre

• On May 27 he entered Palermo with his troops, where he was welcomed by the population as a hero

• 160.000 inhabitants and 4000 invaders

• June 6 end of the Bourbon rule in Sicily

Problems

• Ambiguities (Piedmont? Italy?)• Crispi (‘prime minister of Sicily’) wanted to

involve the ruling classes• Squadre were built to fight against the

‘underclass of men ready to rob and murder’ (Romeo)

• Discovery of networks of gabelloti (tenants) formed by families and controlling land and municipal offices

1866 Uprising in Palermo

• Monreale council had been in the hands of mafia

• September 15 a red banner with the words republic appeared on a church and people started parading to Palermo

• The city was expecting them and the monrealesi were joined by the lower classes

• No leader, but Palermo was under siege for a week

Mafia

• The word Maffia first appeared in a document in April 1865

• 1876 a commission was formed to research the causes of 1866 uprising

• Mafia as a network of semiautonomous local groups lead by a capo

• Impossibility to arrest the capi (no witnessing)

Explanations

• Parallels between revolutions and mafia

• Crumbling down of the barrier between politicians and criminals

• Weakness of the traditional ruling class

• Inability of the middle class to establish itself

Mafia emerged as a semiautonomous form of political control parallel to the Italian state

Mafia: the Name, the Legend

• Slang for ‘flashy’, ‘eye catching’• Mafiusu – mafiusa• Middle ages origin? Sicilian Vespers 1282

(Maledizione ai Francesi Italia anela), a leged that associates mafia with rebellion and resistance to foreign oppression

• During 1860-1870 the term was used only for criminals inside the Conca d’Oro and spread thanks to police officials

Componendum

• Mafia with wide range of activities• Componendum as illicit demand for money• Legal term used to cover bribes• Landlord aristocracy in Palermo rented their estates to

gabellotti which in turn squeezed the peasantry as much as they could

• Soprastanti and campieri, hired by the gabellotto were not paid, they just received a living on the estate they were working

• Pizzu: the right to a scoop of grain from the threshing of each peasant

• Inefficient and political

Police

• Police was also locally organized and not paid

• Policemen lived though tips, they were basically private guards

Pizzu

• Pizzu extended from the agricultrual world to all spheres

• Coachmen paid pizzu for the fares they took

• Tavernkeepers, stallholders, artisans paid pizzu for protection

Bibliography

• Dal Lago E. (2001) ‘The City as a Social Display: Landed Elites and Urban Images in Charleston and Palermo’. Journal of Historical Sociology 14 (4)

• Fentress J. (2000) Rebels and Mafiosi. Death in Sicilian Landscape

• Leontidou L (1990) The Mediterranean City in Transition

• Lo Piccolo F. (1996) ‘Urban Renewal in the Historic Centre of Palermo’. Planning Practice and Research 11(2)

• Lo Piccolo F. (2000) ‘Palermo, a City in Transition: Saint Benedict the Moor versus Saint Rosalia’. International Planning Studies, 5(1)