Palermo Cathedral
St. Mary Magdalene

A controversial interpretation

This document, written by Gualtiero, was mistranslated in the past, leading to errors made by later historiographers and scholars who interpreted the chapel as having been demolished, failing to identify its exact location. A careful reading and translation of the above-mentioned petition shows that Gualtiero was not asking the King for permission to demolish the Chapel, but to grant it to the Clerics of the Cathedral and their liturgical services. At the same time, he wanted to be able to move the mortal remains of the nobles of the royal family which were kept there to another place, by building a new chapel dedicated to Mary Magdalene. It should also be noted that the document is dated 1187, the 21st year of William II's reign , when the work of transforming the church had already been completed. It was reopened for worship on 6 April 1185, with a solemn consecration ceremony dedicated to the Blessed Virgin of the Assumption . The thesis that supported the belief in the chapel’s demolition was also based on a presumed rebuilding ab fundamentis of the Gualtierina Cathedral, shifting it a few metres from its former location as a former mosque and Byzantine basilica to the southern front.

A new Cathedral

Layers of different cultures decorate the external apses

The Virgin Hodegetria

Squaring the circle

The transformations of the hall through the centuries

The beginning of the construction site

The Great Presbytery: a unique space for the cathedral

The Cathedral over the centuries

The columns of the nave: the meticulous study of the overall order

The mosaics of the presbytery

A mixture of styles pervades the floor decorations

A polysemy of high-level artistic forms and content

The senses tell Context 1

A space between the visible and the invisible

The stone bible

The Bible carved in stone

The Cefalù cathedral: a construction yard undergoing a change between a surge of faith and control over the territory

The cemetery of kings

Mosaic decoration

A remarkable ceiling

The towers facing the facade used as bell towers

The plasticism of the main portico and Bonanno Pisano’s Monumental Bronze Door

The rediscovered chapel

The chapel of the crucifix: an artistic casket based on a previous model

A cloister of accentuated stylistic variety

The mosaics of the apses

The lost chapel

Roger II of hauteville: a sovereign protected by God

The area of the Sanctuary

The liturgical spaces of the protesis and the diaconicon

The marble portal: an intimate dialogue between complex ornamental aspects and formal structure

Palermo: the happiest city

The Kings’ Cathedrals

The chapel of san Castrense: an important renaissance work

The architectural modifications ti the cathedral building after the death of Roger II and the transformations of the cloister

The chapel of St. Benedict

The Great Restoration

A controversial interpretation

The side aisles

The cultural substrate through time

Survey of the royal tombs

The side Portico: a combination of elegance and lightness of form

The chystro: a place between earth and sky

A compositional design that combines nordic examples with new artistic languages, over the centuries

Biblical themes enlivened by the dazzling light of the stained – glass windows overlooking the naves

Ecclesia munita

Beyond the harmony of proportions

The decorated facade

The Gualtiero Cathedral

The Chapel of the Kings

Artistic elements in Peter’s ship

A tree full of life

Interior decorations

Norman religious architecture with islamic influences in Sicily

Transformations over the centuries

Tempus fugit: a strategic project implemented in a short period of time

The king’s mark

From the main gate to the aisles: an invitation to a journey of faith

The towers and the western facade

Two initially similar towers, varied over time

Roger II’s strategic design

A chapel by an unknown designer based on repeated symmetries

The medieval city amidst monasticism and feudal aristocracy

A palimpsest of history

The dialogue between the architectures of the monumental complex

The southern portico

The chorus: beating heart of the cathedral

The original design

From the Mosque to the Cathedral

Porphyry sarcophagi: royalty and power

A Northern population

Gardens and architecture as a backdrop to the city of Palermo

The links between the hauteville family and the monastic orders in Sicily

The paradisiacal “Conca d’oro” that embraces Palermo: a name with countless faces through time

The construction of Monreale Cathedral: between myth and history

The balance between architecture and light

The Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene

The longest aisle

Thirteenth-century iconography decorates the nave’s wooden ceiling, designed with new solutions

Under the crosses of the Bema

Characteristics of religious architecture in the romanesque period

Cefalù: settlement evidence through time

Worship services