Many decades cluttered with junk.
The oriental “room of wonders” served during the last centuries mainly as a junk room. The art-historical treasure was discovered by Valeria Giarruso and Giuseppe Cadili, the current owners of the palazzo in via Porta di Castro, just a stone’s throw away from Palazzo Reale, the Royal Palace that Roger I had built over 1000 years ago on the foundations of the residence of the former Emir of Palermo. Roger belonged to a mercenary force from Normandy, descended from the Vikings, who, although of Christian faith and committed to the Pope, took the island of Sicily from the Arab rulers at the end of the last millennium, but did not chase away the Arab people and respected their adherence to Islam.
Staufer Emperor Frederick II as master of integration.
The Hohenstaufen Frederick II, who inherited the island kingdom and large parts of southern Italy at the beginning of the 13th century from the Normans as a child under the tutelage of the Pope, developed as King of Sicily and as Holy Roman Emperor, to which he was crowned as a 24-year-old youth, into the first “modern” statesman and a master of integration. Frederick, son of Emperor Barbarossa, was born and raised in Palermo and spoke fluent Arabic in addition to German. Latin Italian and Greek. Accordingly, his court was international, consisting of military officers, poets and other artists, master builders, physicians, philosophers, astrologers and other scientists.
The Pope’s Banishing Curse.
His tolerance and collaboration with “infidels” and “false believers,” with Muslims, Saracens, Jews, and Byzantines (Greek Orthodox, Eastern Roman Christians), eventually earned Frederick II the Pope’s banishing curse. Also because Frederick, emperor and king, kept postponing the promised crusade to the Promised Land. And because he, Frederick, brought his crusade, the sixth, which he finally took upon himself after all, successfully across the world stage through his diplomatic skill without bloodshed.
Arabia is and remains in the neighborhood.
After all, Frederick also became “King of Jerusalem” despite excommunication, which he cared little about. He would have his bright friends in the fact that with the “Camera delle Meraviglie” in the middle of the old town of Palermo a highly Arabic testimony from past times has emerged and has been carefully renovated. With the newly created video, which will soon be shown in Palermo also at “GlassArt”, the population will enjoy an achievement that celebrates a piece of glorious Palermitan past. Along the way, this also pleases the Tourism Authority. And it should not be forgotten that even today Sicily conducts well over half of its foreign trade with the Arab countries of North Africa.
Cultural treasures from 3 millennia.
Holidaymakers from all over the world come to Sicily not least to feast their eyes on the testimonies of past cultures. The largest island of the Mediterranean, about the size of Bavaria, has not only wild landscapes, a very pleasant climate, beautiful beaches, lots of vacation homes and other vacation accommodations to offer. At least as richly blessed is Sicily, the island at the intersection of Orient and Occident, with well-preserved cultural treasures from over 3000 years.