Memories and the myth of water in Sicilian-Norman architecture

Abstract

Water has always been an element informing both the natural and artificial landscape, taking on evident symbolic connotations for Architecture on the one hand, while on the other becoming its prerequisite even when its presence is not explicitly manifest. The latter is the case of the extensive evidence for hollow herit age assemblages found within the ancient water supply systems lying beneath the Palermo Plain. In particular, the dense network of underground canals tailored to gather and convey water, a clear reference to qanats and Middle Eastern culture, provide the foundations to many of the most important Arabic and, sub sequently, Norman buildings as well as their horticultural sys tems. Despite the oblivion and decay affecting many of the few stretches of the surviving canals, the signs of their presence can still be singled out in an urban and peri-urban landscape where the need to re-establish its vital continuity with the underground landscape has been forgotten.