into a fortress town was established by General Flagizio, who began the construction of a citadel, which later assumed the name of Katantzárion. According to some assumptions, the name is inspired from the development of workshops for creating silk, what the Greeks call "Katartarioi" (Καταρτάριοι) (spinners of silk). At the beginning of the tenth century (circa 903), the Byzantine city was occupied by the Saracens, who founded an emirate and took the Arab name of قطنصار - QaTanSáar. An Arab presence is evidenced by findings at an eighth-century necropolis which had items with Arabic inscriptions. Around the year 1050, Catanzaro rebelled against Saracen dominance and returned to a brief period of Byzantine control. In 1069, Catanzaro was the last city in Calabria, after many months of resistance, to fall under siege by the Normans of Robert Guiscard, who built the Norman castle, still in existence today. During this era, arts and crafts pioneered, and particularly the processing of silk, which was traded with other regions in Italy, other countries and Eastern Europe. Between the 9th and the 11th century, Catanzaro was the first centre to introduce silk production to Italy. The silk of Catanzaro supplied almost all of Europe and was sold in a large market fair to Spanish, Venetian, Genoese and Dutch merchants. Catanzaro became the lace capital of Europe with a large silkworm breeding facility that produced all the laces and linens used in the Vatican. The city was world-famous for its fine fabrication of silks, velvets, damasks and brocades. While the cultivation of mulberry was moving first steps in Northern Italy, silk made in Calabria reached a peak of 50% of the whole Italian/European production. As the cultivation of mulberry was difficult in Northern and Continental Europe, merchants and operators used to purchase in Calabria raw materials in order to finish the products and resell them for a better price. The Genoese silk artisans used fine Calabrian silk for the production of velvets. In the 13th century, Emperor Frederick II made Catanzaro a direct possession of the crown. Later the city was the household feud of the Ruffo, Caraffa and Soriano families. The Normans elevated Catanzaro into a noble county, giving it to Peter Ruffo. The latter was lost in a struggle against Manfred of Sicily, but he later returned to the city, when Charles I of Anjou signed the peace of the War of the Vespers.