The Kalsa is one of Palermo's oldest zones, dating back to when the city was under Arab rule. After they took over in 830, the original walled city was to small for the ever-growing population. A second citadel called al-Halisah meaning the pure or elected, was built in 937 to house the city's government and officials.
I'm fond of the Kalsa for many reasons. On the whole, it escaped the post-war development appropriately known as the "rape of Palermo," (more on that later) because the area was to poor to be profitable. Instead, real renovation began in the 90's under the Mayor Leoluca Orlando with a focus on reinforcing neighbourhood identity and tourism. Its a slow process with up years and down years. Though some of its splendor from better day's has been restored, many buildings still look as if they've been blasted yesterday...a look not totally without its own charm.
Porta Felice
Let's start with Porta Felice, one of the two portals into the Kalsa, where Flora and I took a walk the other day.
When the Spanish viceroy Mercantonio Colonna built a new walkway outside the city walls in 1580, and extended the Cassaro (now corso Vittoria Emanuele) to the sea in 1581, a new entryway was needed to connect the two. Palermo’s senate had named the walkway (now known as the Foro Italico) after the viceroy, and so it seemed only logical to name the portal after his wife, donna Felice Orsini.
Although Colonna laid down the first stone in 1582 with much pomp and circumstance, real construction didn’t begin until 1584 and was suspended a few months after when he left! Nothing more was done until 1602 when the current viceroy, the duke of Feria, delegated the project to the Senate’s architect, Mariano Smiriglio. After his death in 1636, the architect Pietro Novelli finished work on Porto Felice in 1637.
During the second world war, a bomb destroyed the right pilaster. Though it was later restored, many of its finer decorative elements were lost.
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