Cuba, Palermo
La Cuba ( from the Arabic Qubba, " dome " ) is a castle of the Norman kings of Sicily in the west of Palermo. It is located in the former " Parco Nuovo ", the Occupying the western part of the city part of the royal parks. In addition to La Zisa, another castle in this former park, La Cuba is one of the clearest examples of the Arab- Norman style.
History
La Cuba was built under King Wilhelm II on an island in an artificial lake in the Royal Park of Palermo, 500 meters from the Norman Palace and completed in 1180. To distinguish them from the next mountain upstream Cuba Soprana she was also called Cuba Sottana.
1320 came the Cuba privately owned. Giovanni Boccaccio was impressed by reports on the magnificent garden palaces of Palermo so that he chose La Cuba in the sixth amendment to the fifth day of his main work Decameron as Handlungsort its history. Later, Cuba was again the property of the Crown, to Alfonso V of Aragon she transferred his Sicilian Viceroy.
In the 16th century, La Cuba was used as a hospital during a plague epidemic. Under the reign of the Bourbons in the 18th century it was part of a barracks for the cavalry, with major modifications were carried out.
1921 came the Cuba government-owned under the administration of the Ministry of Education. The then started restoration works are progressing but very slowly and are not complete even today by far. First, the reconstructions of the 18th century had to be reversed, with most interior walls and roofs have been removed. So far, only a few supporting arches and vaults, as well as the peripheral Sims have been repaired with the Kufic inscription.
Today, Cuba is located within a Carabinieri barracks, but is open to the public.
Nearby is also the Cubula ( "little Cuba" ), the last remaining of the original pavilion park located.
The exterior
La Cuba is a cube-shaped building, which rises above a rectangular plan of about 30 m length and 16 m width. The architecture is characterized as La Zisa and the Norman Palace itself from the architectural style of the Arabs, who still represented a significant proportion of the population and the craftsmen in Sicily at that time.
Unlike La Zisa jumping not only in the middle of the narrow sides but also in the middle of the longitudinal sides of projections. However, they are no turrets, but end at the top of the facades.
The facades are articulated by simple blind arches, small windows and niches. The top section forms a ring leading to the Bluff, in the Arabic script in a dedication to the builder and the year of completion is carved. The inscription is no longer legible, but was deciphered and translated in 1849 by Michele Amari.
The interior
The entrance to the Cuba is located on the projections of the northeast facade, in front of the remains of a bridge also were found, which led across the lake to the building. The entrance consisted of three adjacent rectangular rooms.
From there you got into an open atrium with a deal that was only supported by four corner pillars. In the middle of the atrium a Impluvium was in the form of an eight -pointed star, and in the middle of the side walls, ie at the points at which protrude outside the projections, niches were with fountain.
On the side opposite the entrance of the atrium was located the main hall, which had a nearly square floor plan. The rear walls and the two side walls had niches that were concluded by muqarnas.
Today, Cuba is mostly a large empty wall square, and only the mostly damaged muqarnas leave the original splendor of the building guessed.