Discover Mazara del Vallo
The Casbah of Mazara del Vallo
The quarter where getting a little lost is the point.
Walk in, take the lanes, look at the doors, the majolica and the courtyards. There is no route to follow: the Casbah rewards being taken slowly, one corner at a time.
Before you go
How long it takes
On your own, about an hour. With a guide, an hour and a half to two — if you want to understand what you are looking at.
On your own you will see doors, majolica, lanes and courtyards. With someone who knows the place you start asking why this street bends like that, who lived here, whether this tile is old or not. And you may find places you would walk straight past alone.
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Before you go
A Casbah that is thoroughly Sicilian
One small warning worth giving. You will not find a huge medina full of stalls, spectacular monuments and a permanent show for visitors. The Casbah of Mazara is smaller, quieter and far more Sicilian than the name suggests.
Which is exactly why it is worth taking it for what it is: a piece of a Mediterranean town with an Arab history, a strong Tunisian presence and a surprising amount of detail.
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A particular history
The Casbah is not only “Arab”
It grows out of the Arab presence in Mazara, which began in 827. But calling it “the Arab quarter” tells only part of the story: over the centuries communities, religions, trades and different ways of living the town have layered up here.
And then there is a far more recent history. From the second half of the twentieth century the old town emptied out: after the 1968 earthquake and above all after the one in 1981, many people from Mazara gradually left this part of town. In the same years the Tunisian community grew, tied to fishing and to seasonal work.
It is a place where the Arab history of Mazara and the contemporary history of Tunisian migration met.
And it is not only a set of historic buildings: it is still a lived-in quarter. Next to the most photogenic corners you will find ordinary houses, washing hung out, everyday doors and the traces of daily life.
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Look up, at the walls, around the doors
The Casbah in its details
The ceramics on the walls are not only decoration. In the project that restored the quarter, tiles and panels tell episodes of history, myth and legend, and often give the lanes and courtyards a new name.
So you can do something simple: walk without hurrying and read the tiles. It is very nearly a small open-air guide.
Something to know about the ceramics
Not everything you see is old
Look up, and also to the sides of the doors: majolica, mosaics, coloured tiles, ceramic panels. And here a word of caution — not everything you see is old.
A good deal of the Casbah’s present look comes from the restoration of the old town begun under Nicola Cristaldi’s administration from 2009: amphorae, jars, benches and ceramic panels with poems, writing and drawings, some by contemporary artists.
And there is a nice detail: Hajto, the signature that appears on several works and installations, is the artistic pseudonym of Nicola Cristaldi — an artist from Mazara, born in 1950, who has worked in ceramics since the eighties. Some of the jars set into the streets of the Casbah are his.
The Casbah is old, but the image you see today is also contemporary. It is not a museum: it is a quarter that has been reinterpreted.
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A story
The house with the blue door
Down one of the Casbah’s alleys there is a blue door that sooner or later ends up in the photographs of everyone who walks past.
The house belongs to Ali Jmar, a Tunisian fisherman who has lived in Mazara for many years. The story is a simple one: his wife did not want him smoking indoors, so he turned the ground floor into a small refuge of his own. He started decorating it, then carried on outside, with ceramics, colour and a great many small details.
Behind the door there is also a little tea room, built and decorated by the owner himself.
And if you are lucky, you may find yourself invited in for a tea.
It is not a monument built to be photographed. It is a house that, little by little, became something else.
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How to take the Casbah
A walk with no hurry
In the Casbah you can follow a route, or simply let the lanes that interest you decide.
One place to start is Piazza della Repubblica. From there you can find Vicolo della Tolleranza, Vicolo della Pietà, Vicolo del Pensiero Bambino, Vicolo degli Aragonesi and Vicolo del Vento, all part of the quarter’s official itinerary.
When it feels like you are lost, you are probably just discovering a different part of the quarter.
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A tradition worth knowing
The Benedictines and the muccunetti
The Casbah holds the Benedictine monastery of San Michele Arcangelo, and with it a very particular baking tradition: muccunetti and almond-paste biscuits.
The curious part is how you buy them. The sweets come through the traditional cloister wheel: you arrive, you ask for what you want, you wait, and the packet comes round on the turntable.
It is one of those small things you might not come across on an ordinary walk. We found it with the guide.
Opening days and hours — to be confirmed.
The Casbah in a few facts
827
The year the Arab presence in Mazara begins.
The lanes are not accidental
They slowed the way in, protected private life, and let people watch their own space.
The bends are a story
A good one, but not documented as fact. The sources talk about defence, sun, wind and privacy.
The Tunisian community is twentieth-century
It grew from the sixties, and above all after the earthquakes of 1968 and 1981.
“Casbah” is a recent name
It settles into common use mostly from the eighties. The quarter had been there for centuries.
Twelve centuries, layered
Not an Arab town left intact: a stratification lived in, altered and reinvented without a break.
What you will meet along the lanes
The Casbah is inside Mazara
From the seafront you reach it on foot, with no car and nothing to arrange. You can give it an hour on a walk, stay longer to look at the ceramics, or pair it with the old town, the harbour and something to eat.
The Casbah is right there, inside the town, and you can take it at your own pace.
Mazara as a base for exploring western Sicily
We like to think of Mazara as a place to set out from, rather than a town to rush through. We are on Via IV Aprile, on the seafront, about three minutes on foot from the centre: from here you walk out without the car towards the Norman Arch, Villa Jolanda, Piazza della Repubblica, the harbour and then into the Casbah.
And then there are the days for what lies further out: Selinunte, Marsala and the Stagnone, Trapani and Erice are all day trips, with Mazara to come back to in the evening.