Read Book Palermo: Travels in the City of Happiness: Art, Architecture and History in Sicily's Ancient Capital
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Palermo: Travels in the City of Happiness is an entertaining and captivatingly personal account of a week of urban adventures in Palermo, Sicily. Written with a profound love for the history of the ancient Sicilian capital, Allan Langdale takes us on a succession of journeys through the city’s physical fabric and varied historical periods. In these pages Palermo’s streets, piazzas and architecture become eloquent witnesses to eras past; ages that live vibrantly on in Landale’s riveting accounts of everything from the palaces of the medieval Norman kings to the modern apartments built during the mafia’s ‘Sack of Palermo’ in the late twentieth century. No stone goes unturned in Langdale’s explorations making it both an incomparable preparatory guide to the city or a wonderful book to curl up with for armchair travel. At times reminiscent of Bill Bryson, Langdale’s sense of humor is always in evidence, as when a shortfall in finances necessitates a dramatic downgrade in accommodations, or when he unsuccessfully tries to impress a state policeman with his less-than-perfect Italian.
Langdale’s voice is fresh and inspiring, but he generously shares the stage with many travelers from Palermo’s past, such as the German philosopher Goethe, who visited the city in the late eighteenth-century and the French writer Guy de Maupassant, who arrived in the late nineteenth. Even the famous painter Van Dyck spent time in the city in the early 1600s. We see the city through their eyes too, and find ourselves in a terrific company of numerous historical travelers going back a thousand years. Hovering like a benevolent ghost through the book is Giuseppe de Lampedusa’s famous novel, The Leopard, through which Langdale finds a profound spiritual key to Palermo’s fascinating past as tries to reorient Palermo’s historical reputation from a ‘City of Tragedy’ to ‘City of Happiness’, a sobriquet it once enjoyed centuries ago.
This little book, so breezily written and casual, is thoroughly researched and offers glimpses into rarified worlds of Palermo’s past, including topics as diverse as the tuna fishing industry and the role played by the citrus orchards of the Concha d’Oro in the formation of the mafia. Of the many tantalizing secrets of Palermo that are revealed by Langdale’s book, not the least is the elegant work of Palermo’s great Art Nouveau architect Ernesto Basile, whose buildings the author carefully seeks out, sometimes cheating his way into edifices he has no business being in. Pushing political correctness aside, Langdale also finds time to sort out the better works of Fascist architecture of Palermo, of which there are several examples. Langdale’s engagements with works of art are compelling, whether it’s Antonella da Messina’s captivating fifteenth-century painting of the Virgin Annunciate or the stunning early twentieth-century mosaic in the Panificio of Salvatore Morello. In these instances Langdale’s years of experience as an art historian serve him well, informing his sensitive portrayals of Palermo’s gems of visual art.
The centerpieces of the book are the glorious remains of the medieval Norman kings, such as the Palermo cathedral, the Palatine chapel, the Church of the Martorana, and the cathedral and monastery of Monreale, on Palermo’s outskirts. Instead of attempting to deal with every work of art, the author selects key works to analyze, thus opening up a world of possibility for readers. Langdale tells the stories of these remarkable achievements—architectural and artistic—with compelling descriptions and attending to details only experts in the field are aware of, giving insights no cursory guidebook could ever attempt. In short, this is an incomparable introduction to Palermo and its art, architecture and history; a perfect companion for anyone visiting Sicily’s capital.
Product Details
- Sales Rank: #138451 in eBooks
- Published on: 2015-04-22
- Released on: 2015-04-22
- Format: Kindle eBook
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