La Cuba, like La Zisa, is a surviving fragment of the Norman royal pleasure-garden complex that once stretched along the coast west of the city. Built in 1180 for William II, it was originally an island pavilion in a large artificial lake — the water gone now, but the rectangular block of pale stone still standing among the modern barracks that occupy the rest of the site.
The exterior is more rewarding than the interior. Pointed-arched blind arcades and a band of inscribed Cufic Arabic praising William and his lineage run round the upper walls. Boccaccio set part of the Decameron's fifth day here, in the romantic Norman gardens that no longer exist. Small site, modest fee, twenty minutes is enough.