Porta Nuova is a monumental city gate of Palermo. It represents the entrance of the Cassaro (the main and most ancient street of the city) from Corso Calatafimi (the way to Monreale) and is located beside Palazzo dei Normanni, royal palace of Palermo.
According to the historian Tommaso Fazello the original gate was built in the 15th century. After the Charles V's conquest of Tunis, the Emperor came to Sicily. He entered in Palermo through this gate on 5 September 1535. In order to commemorate this event, the Senate of Palermo decreed to rebuild the gate in a more sumptuous style. The Viceroy of Sicily Marcantonio Colonna set off the construction in 1583. The gate was completed in 1584.
The gate was destroyed in 1667 because of a fire erupted inside the warehouse of the building. The Senate of Palermo commissioned the architect Gaspare Guercio to rebuild the gate. The work was completed in 1669.
The facade leading to the Cassaro has the typical style of the triumphal arches. The facade leading to the Corso Calatifimi and Piazza Indipendenza presents four big telamones depicting the Moors defeated by Charles V.
References:The trulli, typical limestone dwellings of Alberobello in the southern Italian region of Puglia, are remarkable examples of corbelled dry-stone construction, a prehistoric building technique still in use in this region. These structures, dating from as early as the mid-14th century, characteristically feature pyramidal, domed, or conical roofs built up of corbelled limestone slabs. Although rural trulli can be found all along the Itria Valley, their highest concentration and best preserved examples of this architectural form are in the town of Alberobello, where there are over 1500 structures in the quarters of Rione Monti and Aja Piccola.
The property comprises six land parcels extending over an area of 11 hectares. The land parcels comprise two districts of the city (quarters or Rione Monti with 1,030 trulli; Rione Aia Piccola with 590 trulli) and four specific locations.
Trulli (singular, trullo) are traditional dry stone huts with a corbelled roof.