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The Secret Legend Behind Testa di Moro

If you take a walk in Agrigento or Sicily in general, it is almost impossible not to notice the head-shaped ceramic vases of a fair-skinned woman and a man with distinctly North African features, which are usually used as decoration in some alconies, streets or even in some restaurants and bars.

Those heads are called The Moor’s Heads (Teste di Moro in Italian), they were brought to the Sicilian tradition from the Arabs and nowadays they are one of the most characteristic pieces of the famous Sicilian ceramics. But apart from their marvellous form, they also hide a fascinating legend behind them.

More specifically there are two sides to the same legend. They both take place in the XI century, when the Moors (Arabs) dominated Sicily, and they are about a love story that led to a tragedy.

The first side of the legend is talking about a beautiful Sicilian girl who lived in “Al Hàlisah,” a neighborhood in Palermo known today as La Kalsa. She used to take care of her plants on her balcony daily, but one day a young charming Moor passed under her house and both of them fell in love immediately.

However, shortly after the young girl discovered that the man was already married, he had to return to his family in the East. So, the girl filled with jealousy and anger thought about a way to keep him always by her side. She decided to kill him during his sleep by cutting his head off and using it as a vase to plant her basil, which was watered with her tears for the rest of her life.

As people walked by, they started to admire her beautiful and unique basil, and since then they began to create their own colorful head-shaped vases made of clay.

The other side of the legend has some similarities to the first one, with the only difference being that the girl was coming from a wealthy family, and she fell in love with a poor Moor. One day her brothers found out about their secret relationship, and they thought that this was a disgrace to their family name. So, they decided to cut their heads off, turn them into vases and hung them on their balcony as warnings. So, therefore the ceramic heads are always made in pairs in memory of the two young lovers who were murdered together.

Until this day, we still don’t know what side of the legend is true, but if you ever visit Agrigento, now you know why there are so many head-shaped vases everywhere and also you have a good reason to buy a pair.

Author: John Keloglou

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