The "Head of Moro": a Story of Love, Jealousy and Revenge behind an Icon of Sicily

The Testa di Moro is a characteristic object of the Sicilian tradition. It is a hand-painted ceramic vase used as an ornament that depicts the face of a Moor and sometimes a beautiful young woman. Behind this famous object hides an interesting legend...

It is said that around the year 1000, at the height of the domination of the Moors in Sicily, in the Arab quarter of Palermo "Al Hàlisah" (which means the pure or the elect) now called Kalsa, a beautiful girl lived her days in a sweet but solitary quiet, devoting his attention to the amiable care of the plants of his balcony. Yet the young man, who had made no scruple in abandoning himself to the sweetest loving profusions, in his heart concealed a burdensome secret: his wife and children indeed awaited him in the East, in that land to which he was now to return. Wounded in pride and betrayed by what she believed to be her great love, she planned her revenge. So in the night, while his Moro slept defenseless, he killed him and cut off his head so that his beloved could not only never return to that family, but stay with her forever. He decided that the face of that young man, still dear to her, should remain at her side forever, and created with his head an object similar to a vase where he placed inside a basil shoot a plant linked to a divine symbology and always associated with sacredness. He finally laid his head on his balcony, devoting every day to the care of basil that grew in it. Today every Head of Moro that is produced bears a crown, an element always present to propose the regal plant that originally embellished the head of the young Moro protagonist of the sad story.