Henry VI was born in Nijmegen on 1 November 1165 to Frederick I Barbarossa and Beatrice of Burgundy. A highly educated and perceptive ruler, he was interested in the arts and sciences and knew not only Latin but also Roman and Canon law. In 1169 he became King of Germany, and, in 1191, he became Emp...

Henry VI was born in Nijmegen on 1 November 1165 to Frederick I Barbarossa and Beatrice of Burgundy. A highly educated and perceptive ruler, he was interested in the arts and sciences and knew not only Latin but also Roman and Canon law. In 1169 he became King of Germany, and, in 1191, he became Emp...

Born in Palermo in 1729, Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia trained in his native city and later in Rome, where in 1758 he came second in the Premio Clementino and was greatly influenced by Winckelmann and the Neoclassical movement. He returned to Sicily between 1759 and 1760 and devoted himself to numerou...

After the restoration of the bell tower in 1726 by Giovanni Amico, numerous transformations were carried out from 1781, especially inside the Cathedral. While the initial project was the work of the royal architect Ferdinando Fuga, the work was carried out by the architect Venanzio Marvuglia, with m...

The worship of Saints Peter and Paul, considered to be the champions of the Christian Church, spread to Sicily with the advent of the Normans, during the process of Latinisation and Christianisation of the island. The medieval chronicler Goffredo Malaterra notes that the Norman victory against the S...

The Paschal candle, used in Easter night services as a symbol of the light of Christ rising and overcoming darkness, is usually placed at the end of the candelabrum, known as the patera. The candelabra of the Palatine Chapel, a masterpiece of the Sicilian Romanesque style, is currently located at th...

Westwerk, i.e. west work,  is also known as the western body. It spread between the end of the 9th century and the 10th century in Carolingian churches. Formed by a central structure flanked by two towers, it took on a fortified appearance on the outside, while on the inside it was a space of consi...

The pointed arch, or ogival arch, consists of two circular arches intersecting at the apex. It was used in Islamic and Byzantine architecture and was revived in Sicily (in Cefalù, Palermo and Monreale) during the Norman-Swabian period. It also appeared in Cluny in 1088, with the construction of the...

Capital, from the Latin capitellum, diminutive of caput , i.e. head, is an architectural element placed as the end of a load-bearing structure, such as a pilaster or a column. The capital is usually decorated according to the canons of the Classical period and the relevant styles: Doric, Ionic, Cori...

The pointed arch, or ogival arch, is a type of arch formed by two curving sides, arising from two centres. This allows the keystone, at the point of intersection, to be higher than the classic full-centre arch. Already used in Islamic and Byzantine architecture, it also appeared in Cluny in 1088, wi...