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Palermo, Italy

Palermo
Comune
Città di Palermo
Clockwise from top: Mondello, Teatro Massimo, Cappella Palatina, Zisa, Cathedral, Virgin Annunciate of Antonello da Messina, Quattro Canti in Maqueda Street, Churches of Martorana and San Cataldo, Interior of Santa Caterina Church, Pretoria Square and Mount Pellegrino
Clockwise from top: Mondello, Teatro Massimo, Cappella Palatina, Zisa, Cathedral, Virgin Annunciate of Antonello da Messina, Quattro Canti in Maqueda Street, Churches of Martorana and San Cataldo, Interior of Santa Caterina Church, Pretoria Square and Mount Pellegrino
Flag of Palermo
Flag
Coat of arms of Palermo
Coat of arms
Palermo is located in Italy
Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is located in Europe
Palermo
Palermo
Location of Palermo in Italy
Coordinates: 38°07′N 13°22′E / 38.117°N 13.367°E / 38.117; 13.367Coordinates: 38°07′N 13°22′E / 38.117°N 13.367°E / 38.117; 13.367
Country Italy
Region Europe
Province / Metropolitan city Palermo (PA)
Founded 736 BC
Government
 • Mayor Leoluca Orlando (I)
Area
 • Total 158.9 km2 (61.4 sq mi)
Elevation 14 m (46 ft)
Population (31 January 2013)
 • Total 676,118 (city)
1,300,000 (metro)
Demonym(s) Palermitani or Panormiti
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code 90100
Dialing code 091
Patron saint Saint Rosalia, Saint Agata, Saint Oliva and Saint Benedict the Moor
Saint day 14 July
Website Official website
2012 largest resident foreign-born groups
Country of birth Population
 Bangladesh 4,111
 Sri Lanka 3,405
 Romania 2,373
 Ghana 2,132
 Philippines 1,461
 China 1,057
 Mauritius 1,029
 Morocco 1,028

Palermo (Italian: [paˈlɛrmo], Sicilian: Palermu, Latin: Panormus, from Greek: Πάνορμος, Panormos) is a city of Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old. Palermo is located in the northwest of the island of Sicily, right by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea.

The city was founded in 734 BC by the Phoenicians as Ziz ('flower'). Palermo then became a possession of Carthage, before becoming part of the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire and eventually part of the Byzantine Empire, for over a thousand years. The Greeks named the city Panormus meaning 'complete port'. From 831 to 1072 the city was under Arab rule during the Emirate of Sicily when the city first became a capital. The Arabs shifted the Greek name into Balarm, the root for Palermo's present-day name. Following the Norman reconquest, Palermo became the capital of a new kingdom (from 1130 to 1816), the Kingdom of Sicily and the capital of the Holy Roman Empire under Frederick II Holy Roman Emperor and Conrad IV of Germany, King of the Romans. Eventually Sicily would be united with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies until the Italian unification of 1860.


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