Saint Castrense, patron saint of Monreale, was a bishop, born in North Africa, who lived in the 5th century AD. He lived through the period of persecution by the Vandals, so much so that he was imprisoned on a boat along with other Christians. The following day, at the mercy of the waves, the boat w...

The eighteen nave of the Monreale Cathedral features Corinthian capitals, restored in 1811, figured with imagines clipeatae amid cornucopias. In particular, the nine figured capitals feature figures of women crowned with diadems, adorned with veils, and could perhaps represent the goddesses Juno or ...

By colonnade, from the Latin columnatum, a word derived from columna meaning column, we mean a long series of columns connected at the top by an arch. Used in ancient times, both in Egyptian temples and in the markets during the Hellenistic period, the use of the colonnade became more widespread in ...

The light in the Cathedral was designed to illuminate the entire nave and make the mosaics shine. From the position of the windows, it is possible to see that a careful study was carried out at the beginning, as well as seeing harmonious relationships between the architectural part, the musical part...

The flooring of the Monreale Cathedral was modelled on that of the Palatine Chapel, although this time the project was not uniform. In the first phase, only the floor of the presbytery was completed. In the 16th century, the old flooring of the Cathedral’s central nave, up to the presbytery, was ...

The Monreale Cathedral’s has a wooden roof that rests on the walls with windows and is characterised by two pitches, with strong horizontal beams, arranged transversally on richly decorated bracketed supports. Its shape is therefore reminiscent of a ship's hull, the trunks of which are decorated a...

The Monreale Cathedral’s longitudinal body is divided on each side by nine columns with uniform monolithic shafts which are all the same height, except for the two entrance columns, which are slightly smaller, and the second column on the right. The eighteen columns are made of reddish-grey granit...

In the main nave, on the left, the mosaic cycle taken from the New Testament begins with the stories of Christ’s childhood: The Announcement to Zechariah, Zechariah coming out of the Temple, the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Annunciation to the Shepherds, Journey of the Magi, Ado...

In the main nave, on the right-hand side, the first mosaic cycle comes from the Old Testament and depicts the moments of Creation. Specifically, the following scenes are depicted: Beginning of Creation, Creation of light, Creation of waters, Separation of earth from waters, Creation of stars, Creati...

The pulvino is an architectural element, almost always of a load-bearing nature, but it can also be decorative. It is located above the column or pillar and has the function of supporting the weight of the masonry above it. It also acts as a link between the longitudinal momentum and the carried str...