The Historical Markets of Palermo

The Historical Markets of Palermo

BORGO VECCHIO:

Behind the Teatro Politeama, to the one side and stretching to the sea on the other, the Borgo Vecchio Market is one of the busiest in Palermo, thanks also to its location near the city centre. Above all a fruit and a vegetable market, it is also one of the newest in the city having been created as recently as 1860.

Its success was in some measure also due to the failure of another market founded in the same period, not too far away, in what there is now OPiazza XIII Vittime. In 1898 a Scottish writer W.A. Paton, wrote a lively description of its colourful shops with their abundance of fish, pasta and bread.

BALLARO':

According to an account by an Arab traveller Ibn Hawqual, as farr back as the thenth century there was already a large market where Ballarò still stands today, if if the oldest record mentioning it is a notary's deed dated 1287. The historian Michele Amari was of the opinion that its name comes from the Arabic term suq-al Balari, referring to an area where peasants from Palara, near Monreale, came to sell their wares. Enlarged in 1468, the market later spread as far as what is now Piazza del Carmine with its 17th century church, the Chiesa del Camine. This market, which which is specialized in fruit, vegetables and meat, centres around the narrow Piazza Ballarò, it is always thronged with people, mostly from the local area.