Castello della Siza

The Zisa, building of the XII century, is of the period of the norman domination in Sicily. The Zisa of the origins was a summer residence created in the vicinity of the town for the relax and the amusement of the king. The Normans, taken over at the Arabians in the domination of the Island, was attracted strongly from the culture of their predecessors. The kings wanted rich and magnificent residences like those of the emirs and organized the life of court about the model of that arab, adopting also the cerimonial and the customs. It was so that the Zisa, like all other real residences, was realized at the "arabian" way looking at models of the palace of the northern Africa and of the Egypt, a confirmation of the strong ties that the Sicily continued to have with the cultural islamic world of the basin of the Mediterranean. The Zisa name derives propably from al-Ayz (that in arabian language menas noble, glorious, magnificent). The word denotes the characteristic of islamic use to check with an appellation the most important civil structures. Actually the Castle of the Zisa is seat of the Museum of Islamic Art.