La Cubula

A stone cube six metres on each side stands among the gardens of Palermo, topped by a pinkish dome. This is La Cubula, raised around 1184 under the Norman kings of Sicily, probably to designs by Fatimid architects. Pointed arches pierce every face, and decorative bands with a raised pattern run above them. Nineteenth-century restorers bring out the pink of that dome.

Roger II of Hauteville lays out the Genoardo between 1130 and 1154 as a retreat of gardens, fountains and citrus groves. Its Arabic name means paradise on earth, and within it stand the sollazzi regi, the royal pleasure pavilions. The little pavilion serves the court as a resting place, standing by the waters that feed the artificial lake Alberira. A fish pond may have linked it to the larger Cuba Soprana. Of all the park's scattered kiosks, this is the only one that survives. Centuries rearrange the setting: the lake drains away, hospitals rise nearby, and Burgundian mercenaries turn the grounds into a barracks. The Italian state takes over the property early in the twentieth century, and restoration in the 1980s recovers twelfth-century features.

Thick walls and few openings keep the interior cool through Sicilian summers. Most windows face northeast to catch sea breezes off the water that once ringed it. The raised motif over the arches reappears on the Magione, the cathedral facade and the Martorana bell tower. Norman, Arab and Byzantine cultures meet in these walls, the Arab-Norman style UNESCO lists as World Heritage in Palermo. From the gardens of Villa Napoli around it, you take in the whole cube that has outlasted the paradise it served.