Palermo Cathedral
The great Presbytery and the apses

Ecclesia munita

The Palermo Cathedral was designed as an ecclesia munita , a system already conceived for the Cefalù Cathedral and for the coeval construction of Monreale , creating a series of passages within the walls and in the upper parts, like walkways, protected by a series of battlements, placed at the crown of the sacred building.In the Presbytery area, these passages were opened up towards the inside of the church, with a colonnaded loggia, built with terracotta bricks, with lily capitals, covered with a painted plaster, with the colours that characterise the sacred area of the Sanctuary : porphyry red, which refers to royalty and divine nature, and the bluish green of serpentine, which refers to human nature, according to the canons of Byzantine tradition.

The interior of the church was treated with a “ pietra rasa ” finish and with lime plaster. Investigations carried out during the last restoration confirmed that no mosaic decoration was planned for the walls. The floor followed the classic decorative patterns of the period, consisting of marble slabs inlaid with geometrically designed cosmatesque mosaics. A residual part of the original flooring is visible today in the presbyteral area of the present choir. The external finish of the entire building was influenced by the cultural temperament of the time, with references to Islamic decoration, with walls covered in white stucco plaster and chromatic red and dark blue inserts. There is a one constant which is present throughout Norman architecture in southern Italy, consisting of the “ lava inlay ” ornamentation with geometric designs, symbols and floral depictions. This technique, which is not found in the Cefalù Cathedral, was instead widely used to decorate the apses of the Palermo Cathedral and the Monreale Cathedral.

Worship services

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

The side aisles

The Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene

The towers and the western facade

The lost chapel

The longest aisle

A tree full of life

The senses tell Context 1

The Great Presbytery: a unique space for the cathedral

The Gualtiero Cathedral

The Chapel of the Kings

Artistic elements in Peter’s ship

The cemetery of kings

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

The rediscovered chapel

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

The chystro: a place between earth and sky

Norman religious architecture with islamic influences in Sicily

A space between the visible and the invisible

Transformations over the centuries

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

The construction of Monreale Cathedral: between myth and history

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

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

The original design

Layers of different cultures decorate the external apses

Ecclesia munita

Cefalù: settlement evidence through time

The medieval city amidst monasticism and feudal aristocracy

The transformations of the hall through the centuries

Beyond the harmony of proportions

The king’s mark

Gardens and architecture as a backdrop to the city of Palermo

The beginning of the construction site

The Virgin Hodegetria

Mosaic decoration

The chapel of St. Benedict

The area of the Sanctuary

Survey of the royal tombs

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

The southern portico

A new Cathedral

A Northern population

Two initially similar towers, varied over time

Roger II of hauteville: a sovereign protected by God

A polysemy of high-level artistic forms and content

The Bible carved in stone

The Cathedral over the centuries

The balance between architecture and light

The dialogue between the architectures of the monumental complex

Interior decorations

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

A mixture of styles pervades the floor decorations

The Great Restoration

A chapel by an unknown designer based on repeated symmetries

Under the crosses of the Bema

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

The cultural substrate through time

The decorated facade

The chapel of san Castrense: an important renaissance work

Squaring the circle

The chorus: beating heart of the cathedral

Roger II’s strategic design

The mosaics of the presbytery

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

A controversial interpretation

The mosaics of the apses

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

A palimpsest of history

A cloister of accentuated stylistic variety

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

The towers facing the facade used as bell towers

Characteristics of religious architecture in the romanesque period

The Kings’ Cathedrals

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

Palermo: the happiest city

The stone bible

A remarkable ceiling

The liturgical spaces of the protesis and the diaconicon

From the Mosque to the Cathedral

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

Porphyry sarcophagi: royalty and power