In Cefalù, there are Northern European influences, especially visible in the transept, with its three semicircular apses, which has a higher elevation than the naves. The soaring transept and this propensity for verticality is typical of French-Burgundian architecture. In particular, the Abbey of C...

From the Latin verb substruĕre, the term substructure refers to the elements that act as a support or base for the building. The substructure may be partially or completely underground....

Foundations are the supporting bases of a building, which anchors the building to the ground below. Foundations are necessary to absorb and distribute the weight of the construction on the ground....

After years of study and research and after various restoration works, which followed one another in a disorganised manner over time, the first complete and appropriate intervention to address the Monument’s conservation needs began in the 1980s. The project, developed and then directed by the Sup...

A single-lancet window is a window, usually small in size, whose upper part ends with an arch and has no subdivision, and therefore has only one opening. The splayed single-lancet windows are characterised by flaring in the wall, from the outside towards the inside, known as a splay.  ...

The Cefalù Cathedral’s stained-glass windows are contemporary, designed and made by Palermo artist Michele Canzonieri since 1985 and first used in the 1990s. In medieval churches, stained-glass windows are symbolic of light and represent the divine presence on earth. According to this principle,...

Michele Canzoneri was born in Palermo in 1944. As a young artist, he began to study transparency, so much so that in the 1970s he conducted experiments with resin, often coloured, and created installations with large luminous and transparent objects, made of blown glass, mixed with cast resin. The s...

The painted panels on the Cefalù Cathedral ceiling, arranged on horizontal boards, are an interesting example of 12th-century wood painting. Traces of gold leaf, also found in the Palatine Chapel (iconographic similarities have also been found between Cefalù and the central aisle of the Palatine),...

In the attic, the decorative motif of the octagonal stars recurs. As they are formed by the interweaving of two squares, the stars symbolise the union between heaven and earth. Octagonal stars, flat and carved, circumscribe an eight-petalled flower. This theme, which later spread to Sicily and is al...

The truss is a load-bearing structure used in roofing, originally composed of wooden elements, later replaced by iron. It is formed by two beams, known as rafters, inclined according to the pitch of the roof and connected together, horizontally, by another beam: the chain. Thanks to its triangular s...