Palermo Cathedral
The Context 1

A Northern population

The Normans, a Viking population from Normandy, landed in Messina in 1061 and conquered Palermo in 1071 under the leadership of two great leaders of the Altavilla family: Robert Guiscard and his brother the Great Count Roger found a prosperous and rich city.From here they continued their quest to conquer the island, which lasted about 30 years, until 1091, when the city of Noto, the last Muslim stronghold in Sicily, was conquered.
The military operation was preceded by a pact, known as the Treaty of Melfi , in which Pope Nicholas II gave Robert Guiscard, of the Norman Altavilla family , the mandate to proceed to conquer the regions of southern Italy, giving him the title of Duke of Apulia, Count in Sicily and Duke of Calabria, even before the conquest of such territories.
The Norman presence in Sicily was not accidental, it was strongly backed by the Church, to somehow balance the Byzantine presence in Southern Italy and free Sicily from the Muslim occupation, which had lasted over 250 years, thus being able to bring Christianity back to the island.

The area of the Sanctuary

The cemetery of kings

The king’s mark

The construction of Monreale Cathedral: between myth and history

The Kings’ Cathedrals

The Bible carved in stone

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

The senses tell Context 1

Characteristics of religious architecture in the romanesque period

Roger II of hauteville: a sovereign protected by God

Porphyry sarcophagi: royalty and power

The original design

The stone bible

A tree full of life

Two initially similar towers, varied over time

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

The chorus: beating heart of the cathedral

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

Beyond the harmony of proportions

The decorated facade

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

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

The Gualtiero Cathedral

A new Cathedral

The chapel of St. Benedict

The Chapel of the Kings

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

From the Mosque to the Cathedral

The Great Presbytery: a unique space for the cathedral

A cloister of accentuated stylistic variety

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

A Northern population

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

The rediscovered chapel

Squaring the circle

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

The Virgin Hodegetria

Interior decorations

Gardens and architecture as a backdrop to the city of Palermo

The Cathedral over the centuries

Transformations over the centuries

Mosaic decoration

Ecclesia munita

The medieval city amidst monasticism and feudal aristocracy

Palermo: the happiest city

The dialogue between the architectures of the monumental complex

Cefalù: settlement evidence through time

Under the crosses of the Bema

A palimpsest of history

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

Norman religious architecture with islamic influences in Sicily

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

A mixture of styles pervades the floor decorations

Artistic elements in Peter’s ship

The towers facing the facade used as bell towers

The balance between architecture and light

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

Survey of the royal tombs

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

The mosaics of the presbytery

The chapel of san Castrense: an important renaissance work

The longest aisle

A controversial interpretation

Worship services

A remarkable ceiling

A space between the visible and the invisible

The liturgical spaces of the protesis and the diaconicon

The Great Restoration

The beginning of the construction site

The transformations of the hall through the centuries

The southern portico

The lost chapel

The mosaics of the apses

The Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene

Layers of different cultures decorate the external apses

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

A chapel by an unknown designer based on repeated symmetries

The chystro: a place between earth and sky

Roger II’s strategic design

The towers and the western facade

The side aisles

A polysemy of high-level artistic forms and content

The cultural substrate through time