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William II, Duke Of Athens
William II (1312 – 22 August 1338) was the third son of Frederick III of Sicily and Eleanor of Anjou. He inherited the Duchy of Athens after the death of his elder brother Manfred of Athens, Manfred on 9 November 1317. During his minority, his Greek possessions were governed by his illegitimate elder brother Alfonso Frederick, who in 1319 added the Duchy of Neopatria to the Catalan domains. In 1330, Alfonso returned from Greece and William ceded the Count of Malta, counties of Malta and Gozo to him. Nicola Lanza replaced him in Greece. In 1335, William married María Álvarez de Jérica, a descendant of Roger of Lauria, without papal dispensation, as both John XXII and Benedict XII wanted to check the power of Frederick his father. Two years later, his father willed him the Principality of Taranto, the county of Calatafimi, the honour of Monte Sant'Angelo, and various castles and lands in Noto, Spaccaforno, Capo Passero, and Avola when his mother, Eleanor, daughter of Charl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duke Of Athens
The Duchy of Athens (Greek language, Greek: Δουκᾶτον Ἀθηνῶν, ''Doukaton Athinon''; Catalan language, Catalan: ''Ducat d'Atenes'') was one of the Crusader states set up in Greece after the conquest of the Byzantine Empire during the Fourth Crusade as part of the process known as Frankokratia, encompassing the regions of Attica and Boeotia, and surviving until its conquest by the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century. History Establishment of the Duchy The first duke of Athens (as well as of Thebes (Greece), Thebes, at first) was Otto de la Roche, a minor Duchy of Burgundy, Burgundian knight of the Fourth Crusade. Although he was known as the "Duke of Athens" from the foundation of the duchy in 1205, the title did not become official until 1260. Instead, Otto proclaimed himself "Lord of Athens" (in Latin language, Latin ''Dominus Athenarum'', in French language, French ''Sire d'Athenes''). The local Greeks called the dukes "Megas Kyris" (, "Great Lord"), from which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Of Lauria
Roger of Lauria (''c''. 1245 – 17 January 1305), was a Calabrian knight who served the Crown of Aragon as admiral of the Aragonese navy during the War of the Sicilian Vespers. He was probably the most successful and talented naval tactician of the Middle Ages. He is known as Ruggero or Ruggiero di Lauria in Italian and Roger de Llúria in Catalan language, Catalan. Biography Roger of Lauria was born at Lauria (or Scalea) in what is now southern Italy, the son of Richard of Lauria, Great Justiciar of the Kingdom of Sicily, and Bella d'Amichi, Donna Bella, a nurse of Constance of Sicily, Queen of Aragon, Constance of Sicily. His father had served under King Manfred of Sicily, a Hohenstaufen; when the last member of that family, Conradin of Swabia, was beheaded at Naples in 1268, he and his mother took refuge with other Guelphs and Ghibellines, Ghibelline exiles at Barcelona, part of the Crown of Aragon. Naval career Later King Peter III of Aragon, who had married Constance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cathedral Of Palermo
Palermo Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Palermo, located in Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy. It is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. As an architectural complex, it is characterized by the presence of different styles, due to a long history of additions, alterations and restorations, the last of which occurred in the 18th century. History The church was erected in 1185 by Walter Ophamil, the Norman archbishop of Palermo and King William II's minister, on the area of an earlier Byzantine basilica. By all accounts this earlier church was founded by Pope Gregory I and was later turned into a mosque by the Arabs after their conquest of the city in the 9th century. Ophamil is buried in a sarcophagus in the church's crypt. The medieval edifice had a basilica plan with three apses. The upper orders of the corner towers were built between the 14th and the 15th centuries, while in the early Renaissance period the southern porch w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palermo
Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. 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 in the northwest of the island of Sicily, by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The city was founded in Isla Palermo 734 BC by the Phoenicians as ("flower"). Palermo then became a possession of Ancient Carthage, Carthage. Two ancient Greeks, Greek ancient Greek colonization, colonies were established, known collectively as ; the Carthaginians used this name on their coins after the 5th centuryBC. As , the town became part of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire, Empire for over a thousand years. From 831 to 1072 the city was under History of Islam in south ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Guzmán. It was approved by Pope Honorius III via the papal bull on 22 December 1216. Members of the order, who are referred to as Dominicans, generally display the letters ''OP'' after their names, standing for , meaning 'of the Order of Preachers'. Membership in the order includes friars, nuns, Religious sister (Catholic), active sisters, and Laity, lay or secular Dominicans (formerly known as Third Order of Saint Dominic, tertiaries). More recently, there have been a growing number of associates of the religious sisters who are unrelated to the tertiaries. Founded to preach the The gospel, gospel and to oppose heresy, the teaching activity of the order and its scholastic organisation placed it at the forefront of the intellectual life of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles II Of Naples
Charles II, also known as Charles the Lame (; ; 1254 – 5 May 1309), was King of Naples, Count of Provence and Forcalquier (1285–1309), Prince of Achaea (1285–1289), and Count of Anjou and Maine (1285–1290); he also was King of Albania (1285–1294), and claimed the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1285. He was the son of Charles I of Anjouone of the most powerful European monarchs in the second half of the 13th centuryand Beatrice of Provence. His father granted Charles the Principality of Salerno in the Kingdom of Sicily (or ''Regno'') in 1272 and made him regent in Provence and Forcalquier in 1279. After the uprising known as the Sicilian Vespers against Charles's father, the island of Sicily became an independent kingdom under the rule of Peter III of Aragon in 1282. A year later, his father made Charles regent in the mainland territories of the ''Regno'' (or the Kingdom of Naples). Charles held a general assembly where unpopular taxes were abolished and the liberties of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avola
Avola (; /, becoming / if preceded by vowel; ) is a city and in the province of Syracuse, Sicily (southern Italy). History The foundation of the city in an area previously inhabited by the Sicani and invaded by the Sicels in the 13th-12th centuries BC, is perhaps connected to the city of Hybla Major. Hybla was the name of a pre-Greek divinity, later identified with the Greek Aphrodite (mythology), Aphrodite. The greater Greece, Greeks colonized there in the 8th century. An important hoard of Ancient Greek gold jewellery and over 300 coins was found in the vicinity of Avola in 1914. Estimated to date between 370 and 300 BC, the extant items of ornate jewellery are now housed in the British Museum and comprise a pair of bracelets with double snake-heads, a finger-ring and an ear-ring with the figure of Eros. When the Roman Republic, Romans conquered Sicily in 227 BC, the city of Syracuse, Sicily, Syracuse maintained some autonomy in the control of the area, which lasted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capo Passero
Capo Passero or Cape Passaro (; Greek: ; Latin: Pachynus or Pachynum) is a celebrated promontory of Sicily, forming the extreme southeastern point of the whole island, and one of the three promontories which were supposed to have given to it the name of "Trinacria". (Ovid, ''Fast.'' iv. 479, ''Met.'' xiii. 725; Dionys. Per. 467–72; Scyl. p. 4. § 13; Pol. i. 42; Strabo vi. pp. 265, 272, &c.; Plin. iii. 8. s. 14; Ptol. iii. 4. § 8; Mela, ii. 7. § 15.) Historical significance Ancient geographers correctly describe it as extending out towards the south and east so as to be the point of Sicily that was the most nearly opposite to Crete and the Peloponnese. It is at the same time the southernmost point of the whole inland. The headland itself is not lofty, but formed by bold projecting rocks (''projecta saxa Puchyni'', Virg. '' Aen.'' iii. 699), and immediately off it lies a small rocky island (the Isola di Capo Passero) of considerable elevation, which appears to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spaccaforno
Ispica (, ) is a city and ''comune'' in the south of Sicily, Italy. It is from Ragusa, Italy, Ragusa, from Syracuse, Italy, Syracuse, and away from La Valletta, on the coast of Malta. The first mention in a document of Ispica occurred in 1093, in a list of church (building), churches and ecclesiastic departments for administrative purposes, but the territory has been colonized since the Bronze Age. The city is located on a hill. The main economical activity consists of farming and organic products, especially carrot, zucchini, tomatoes, olives, vineyards. Ispica is the largest producer of organic carrot in southern Italy with about 18,000 tons of annual production. There is of coastline, most of which is sand and dunes, and an island (Porri island) at from the coast. The town also hosts examples of Sicilian Baroque architecture such as the Vincenzo Sinatra's Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, the Annunziata Church, the Carmine monastery, and the St. Barthelemy cathedral. Is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noto
Noto (; ) is a city and in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily, Italy. It is southwest of the city of Syracuse at the foot of the Iblean Mountains. It lends its name to the surrounding area Val di Noto. In 2002 Noto and its church were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Etymology Noto is regarded as having a possible Ancient Greek etymology. Likely, the name is derived from "south" (Greek: Νότιο ''Notio''), as in Notion. History The old town, Noto Antica, lies directly north on Mount Alveria. A city of Sicel origin, it was known as Netum in ancient times. In 263 BCE the city was granted to Hiero II by the Romans. According to legend, Daedalus stayed in the city after his flight over the Ionian Sea, as did Hercules after his seventh task. During the Roman era, it opposed the magistrate Verres. In 866, the Muslims conquered the city and named it ''Nawṭis'', elevating it to the capital of one of Sicily’s three districts, the Val di Noto. It remained an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monte Sant'Angelo
Monte Sant'Angelo (Neapolitan language, Foggiano: ) is a town and ''comune'' of Apulia, southern Italy, in the province of Foggia, on the southern slopes of Monte Gargano. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). History Monte Sant'Angelo as a town appeared only in the 11th century. Between 1081 and 1103 Monte Sant'Angelo was the capital of a large Italo-Normans, Norman dominion under the control of Henry, Count of Monte Sant'Angelo, Count Henry, who was a vassal of the Byzantine Empire. The grotto which houses the Sanctuary of Saint Michael the Archangel where, according to legend, St. Michael appeared in 490, 492 and 493, has been the site of many famous pilgrimages, which started from Mont Saint-Michel. Pope John Paul II visited the sanctuary in 1987. In the 17th century the city became part of the Kingdom of Naples, to which it belonged until the unification of Italy in 1861. Main sights The most important attraction of Monte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calatafimi
Calatafimi-Segesta, commonly known as simply Calatafimi, is a ''comune'' in the province of Trapani in the Italian region of Sicily. It has 6,019 inhabitants. The full name of the municipality was created in 1997 and is meant to highlight the presence within its territory of the 5th century BC Doric temple of Segesta, widely regarded as one of the most intact of its type. Adjoining the temple, on a nearby hilltop, there is a 2nd-century Roman amphitheater. History The town developed during the age of the Muslim emirate of Sicily, when it was known as ''Qalʿat Fīmī'' (), referring to the defensive castle overlooking the town, now partially restored from ruins. One hypothesis for the castle's name derives it from – a stronghold protecting the territory of a Roman period nobleman mentioned by Cicero, Diocles Phimes. Another hypothesis derives it from "Castle of Euphemius", possibly referring to the 5th-century Byzantine patriarch by that name or, more likely, to the 9th-centur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
