La Zisa

La Zisa is a Norman summer palace at Piazza Guglielmo il Buono in western Palermo, Sicily, Italy. Its name derives from the Arabic al-Aziz, meaning the splendid or noble one. Construction began around 1165 under King William I and was completed under William II, using Islamic craftsmen who worked in a Fatimid-influenced style. The palace stood inside the Genoardo, a walled royal park of gardens, fishponds and pavilions that served as a pleasure retreat just outside the city. The building is a tall rectangular block of golden stone with blind arcades on its facade and an Arabic inscription in Kufic script running along the top. Its principal interior space is the Sala della Fontana on the ground floor, where water flowed from a wall fountain over a marble channel with carved decoration and into a basin, cooling the air in the way of Islamic architecture. The room is crowned with muqarnas vaulting, the honeycomb-like stalactite ornament, and retains remnants of mosaic decoration, including a frieze with peacocks and archers. The palace was altered over the centuries, particularly in the 17th century when the Sandoval family modified it, and later suffered neglect and a partial collapse of a structure in 1971 that was subsequently restored. Today the upper floors host an Islamic art museum, with objects from across the Islamic Mediterranean, including carved wooden and metal pieces and ceramics. La Zisa is one of the nine components of the UNESCO World Heritage site Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale, inscribed in 2015. Major restoration took place in the 1990s and the building is now generally in a stable condition. The setting, surrounded by the modern district, makes the contrast between the royal park of the past and the present streets clear. Visitors can explore the ground floor, the upper rooms and the roof terrace with views of the surrounding city.