CHAPHTER E5A C1AHf5 fPiPR1 E5A fEfAP5PE E5A 1fBPiE 153
Sicily, the geographic dispersal of activity and authority moderated the cen-
tralization desired by the state: under the Aragonese, when Palermo regained
its status of economic capital, the king resided in Catania and the supreme
courts of justice were in Messina.
Sicily is unique in that a large number of its cities have been continually
inhabited since antiquity. The stability that has provided is augmented by the
existence of a number of large ports on the island: Trapani, Palermo, Messina
and Catania, Syracuse, Agrigente. The Arabs, Normans, and Frederick II sub-
sequently enhanced Sicily’s maritime wealth by founding Marsala, Sciacca,
Cefalù, and Patti, as well as Augusta and Terranova (Gela). It was within this
framework that the process of incastellamento (encastlement) was inaugurat-
ed by the Fatimids, providing Sicily with some 30 towns that occupied high
ground and were sturdily built.19 It was carried out in the western part, in the
back country of Termini, around Girgenti and Lentini around 1325, as part of a
plan to relocate the populations and facilitate the Angevin invasion.20 Under
the Normans, a hierarchical system would be set in place that differenti-
ated the terra (a small fortified town with its own territory and jurisdiction)
from the casale (with its open inhabitation and farming areas). Frederick II’s
wars against Muslim uprisings destroyed this system, which is nonetheless still
partially preserved in the Valdemone (from Cefalù to Taormine).
Sicily has been a land of experiment and brutal change. With the excep-
tion of Valdemone, the countryside remains empty, dominated by a network
of concentrated agglomerations and a few isolated castles—for the most part
abandoned. The period of the casale, from the thirteenth to the early four-
teenth centuries, no doubt created a rural and human landscape fairly similar
to modern Sardinia, which subsequently gave way to the bare “latifondo (large
estates).” Like Sardinia, the concentration of the population in the main urban
areas gives the impression of an urbanized society, but these remain primarily
agricultural countries.
The history of Sardinian urbanism is characterized, first of all, by the in-
stability of its cities. The coastal Roman-Byzantine towns, such as Callaris
(Cagliari), Olbia, Sulcis, and Tharros, were abandoned. The dioceses generally
moved inland, towards Tempio, Tratalias, and Oristano, and later to Iglesias,
Sassari, and Castelgenovese. In the eleventh century, the initial approach to
19 Henri Bresc, “Les Fatimides, les Croisés et l’habitat fortifié,” in Habitat fortifié et organisa-
tion de l’espace en Méditerranée médiévale (Lyon, 1983), pp. 29–34.
20 Henri Bresc, “Désertions, regroupements, stratégies dans la Sicile des Vêpres,” in Castrum
- Guerre, fortification et habitat dans le Monde méditerranéen au Moyen Age, ed. Andre
Bazzana (Madrid, 1988), pp. 237–245.