Sicilian Moor's Heads: History and Legend

The Moor's heads depict a man and a woman, protagonists of a legend that has enchanted admirers of Sicilian history and culture for almost a thousand years. The legend tells of a young girl, who lived at the beginning of 1100 AD, beautiful and devoted to the care of her plants on the balcony of her house in Palermo, in the Kalsa district, who fell madly in love with a Moorish soldier, who was also overwhelmed by passion for the beautiful lady. It was a fiery, sentimental love with a mysterious ending!

According to one version of the legend, the girl was deceived by the soldier: in reality married with children, and ready to abandon her to return to his homeland. The discovery of this betrayal pushed the girl to kill her lover in his sleep, to decapitate him and to use the head as a vase for basil, which was then put on display on the balcony of the house. Again according to the tragic legend, the basil grew so luxuriant that it aroused the envy of all the neighbors, who began to have the craftsmen make vases in the shape of heads , that is, the current Moor's heads (also called by some Turks' Heads), a symbol of passion and love that must not be betrayed.

According to another version of the legend, the two lovers were both killed and beheaded by her family, who did not approve of their love affair, and their heads were put on display as a warning against illicit unions. From this story, the depiction of the Moor's heads as a couple is a symbol of passion and love that transcends time.

They are now the symbol of Sicily and transform a tragic and mysterious story into a symbol of wealth and life.