Porta Palermo - Termini Imerese

The Porta Palermo is part of the new city wall built in the second half of the 16th century on the impulse of Emperor Charles V, who had come to Sicily in 1535 and recognized the need to improve and expand the defenses of coastal cities. subject to raids by Barbary pirates.

A strong curtain wall, about 3.8 km long , was built in Termini, with no less than 10 entrance gates (today, unfortunately most of them have disappeared or joined together by construction works or some, made unrecognizable by human neglect). However, in addition to the aforementioned Porta Palermo, nine other passageways were built to enter the city:

Porta di Santa Caterina (or di S. Giovanni or della Fossola),

Porta Caccamo (or Girgenti),

Porta Barratina (or Euracea or Bellomo),

Porta Messina (or of Pescara),

Charger Port ,

door of health ,

Porta della Dogana (or marina),

Porta Pescheria , and finally

Porta Erculea or Felice (added in 1636).

The gates not only provided an effective defense system, but were also a valid deterrent for the control of travelers and goods flowing into the city. In fact, through the payment of excise duty, the incoming goods represented one of the sources of tax revenue of the Termini of the sixteenth century.

When the Porta Palermo was built, there was only countryside outside and a mule track through which you could get to the Mulinelli (or Molinelli) and the gardens of the S. Leonardo River.

Willem Vandenameele