Cefalù Cathedral
context 2

Roger II of hauteville: a sovereign protected by God

The diploma for the foundation of the Cefalù Cathedral reflects important aspects of the personality of the Norman sovereign and his thoughts. Legend has it that the construction of the Cathedral, dedicated to the Holy Saviour, followed the near-death of Roger II and his crew, who were caught at sea by a storm during a voyage from Salerno to Palermo.
No longer able to steer the ship or return to the port of departure, the king, after raising his hands to the heavens, turned to divine benevolence to keep everyone safe, promising to build a temple in honour of the Holy Saviour and Saints Peter and Paul , in the same place where he had landed.
The salvation granted became an important sign for a 12th century man, almost a symbolic message that was meant to protect his rise and reign.
As soon as he reached the promontory of Cefalù, Roger II marked out the place where the church was to be built with his directing rod. So it was on 7 June 1131, the day of Pentecost, that the first stone was laid, starting the construction of the cathedral, in the presence of Bishop Ugone. Roger II, who kept his promise to the Lord during the shipwreck, gave the sacred building a papal mandate and made it a bishopric.
The start of the new construction, built on the remains of a pre-existing Byzantine church , dating back to the 4th century AD and of which some mosaics have emerged, concealed a political as well as a religious message. It was also dedicated in honour of the Great Count and Adelasia, the sovereign’s parents, in connection with the church of the Holy Trinity of Miletus , which housed the remains of Roger’s father.
Moreover, the new church, according to the customs practised mainly in Normandy and Norman England, was a monastery-cathedral designed for the burial of the first king of Sicily .
Although Roger’s plan to erect the religious building as his personal  mausoleum did not go ahead, due to the political aims of the archbishop of Palermo, Gualtiero Offamilio , at the end of the 12th century, the sovereign’s design encapsulated all the renewal actions linked to the new kingdom, born on Christmas Day 1130.

The balance between architecture and light

The chapel of St. Benedict

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

A palimpsest of history

Artistic elements in Peter’s ship

The longest aisle

The towers facing the facade used as bell towers

The Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene

Porphyry sarcophagi: royalty and power

The rediscovered chapel

The Chapel of the Kings

Characteristics of religious architecture in the romanesque period

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

Beyond the harmony of proportions

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

Mosaic decoration

The stone bible

The Gualtiero Cathedral

Cefalù: settlement evidence through time

A tree full of life

Transformations over the centuries

The mosaics of the apses

Under the crosses of the Bema

The Bible carved in stone

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

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

The Virgin Hodegetria

Norman religious architecture with islamic influences in Sicily

From the Mosque to the Cathedral

The decorated facade

Roger II of hauteville: a sovereign protected by God

A chapel by an unknown designer based on repeated symmetries

A mixture of styles pervades the floor decorations

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

The Great Presbytery: a unique space for the cathedral

A cloister of accentuated stylistic variety

Gardens and architecture as a backdrop to the city of Palermo

A new Cathedral

The cemetery of kings

Two initially similar towers, varied over time

The cultural substrate through time

The transformations of the hall through the centuries

The mosaics of the presbytery

Roger II’s strategic design

The Great Restoration

The side aisles

The liturgical spaces of the protesis and the diaconicon

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

The southern portico

The king’s mark

A remarkable ceiling

The chapel of san Castrense: an important renaissance work

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

A space between the visible and the invisible

Ecclesia munita

Palermo: the happiest city

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

The towers and the western facade

The construction of Monreale Cathedral: between myth and history

A polysemy of high-level artistic forms and content

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

The area of the Sanctuary

Interior decorations

A Northern population

The medieval city amidst monasticism and feudal aristocracy

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

The lost chapel

The Cathedral over the centuries

A controversial interpretation

Survey of the royal tombs

Squaring the circle

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

The chorus: beating heart of the cathedral

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

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

Worship services

Layers of different cultures decorate the external apses

The chystro: a place between earth and sky

The senses tell Context 1

The dialogue between the architectures of the monumental complex

The Kings’ Cathedrals

The beginning of the construction site

The original design