Monreale Cathedral
the context 2

The cultural substrate through time

Following the difficult thirty years of the conquest, Norman rule favourably influenced a balanced synthesis between Western Latin, Eastern Byzantine and Arab Islamic cultures , although Christianity was at the heart of the restoration, thanks to the unifying power of the Church.
With William II , Monreale became the Kingdom’s most important ecclesiastical lordship, thanks to the creation of a Bishopric Abbey even before the settlement appeared.
Mons Regalis, at the foot of Mount Caputo, was located within the vast park of the Norman kings, the flourishing and luxuriant Genoard , the last to be created on top of earlier Islamic gardens.During the reign of William II, it stretched from the city of Palermo to the east, in the valley of the Oreto River, until it reached the Alto Fonte Park to the south, where there is still a  chapel and a palace from Roger's era .
The Monreale area was known for two particular places: the village of Bahalara   and the Chapel of Santa Domenica Ciriaca which, in Islamic times, preserved the Greek episcopal tradition in Palermo. The sacred space was the last Christian stronghold during the Muslim domination, and is of historical importance as it was home to the Bishop of Palermo, Nicodemus, who returned to the city when the Normans arrived to convert the large mosque into a church for Christian worship.
In the early years, the Monreale Cathedral’s foundation was often linked to the Latin phrase “super sanctam Kiriacam”, which also appeared in William II’s donation deed, published in 1176.
The fact that the Cathedral is located next to the small church of St. Cyriaca, whose liturgical name refers to the Lord’s Day, Sunday, justified the sovereign’s decision to build it in the interest of greater political power, given its proximity to the archbishopric of Palermo. Significant traces of this are evident in the hamlet of a municipality near Monreale. Its name, Santa Dominica, traces back to the Latin translation of the original Greek name for the now abandoned primitive place of prayer.

A cloister of accentuated stylistic variety

Survey of the royal tombs

The transformations of the hall through the centuries

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

Squaring the circle

A mixture of styles pervades the floor decorations

The mosaics of the presbytery

The Chapel of the Kings

Gardens and architecture as a backdrop to the city of Palermo

The cemetery of kings

The construction of Monreale Cathedral: between myth and history

Cefalù: settlement evidence through time

The dialogue between the architectures of the monumental complex

The chorus: beating heart of the cathedral

A new Cathedral

The mosaics of the apses

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

The towers and the western facade

The longest aisle

The king’s mark

Layers of different cultures decorate the external apses

Interior decorations

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

The Great Presbytery: a unique space for the cathedral

Artistic elements in Peter’s ship

The senses tell Context 1

Roger II of hauteville: a sovereign protected by God

The beginning of the construction site

The Kings’ Cathedrals

A remarkable ceiling

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

The lost chapel

A chapel by an unknown designer based on repeated symmetries

The rediscovered chapel

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

The Great Restoration

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

Ecclesia munita

Two initially similar towers, varied over time

The liturgical spaces of the protesis and the diaconicon

The towers facing the facade used as bell towers

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

Worship services

The Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene

Under the crosses of the Bema

Characteristics of religious architecture in the romanesque period

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

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

Norman religious architecture with islamic influences in Sicily

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

The side aisles

From the Mosque to the Cathedral

A Northern population

The Bible carved in stone

A space between the visible and the invisible

The medieval city amidst monasticism and feudal aristocracy

A polysemy of high-level artistic forms and content

Palermo: the happiest city

The cultural substrate through time

The area of the Sanctuary

The decorated facade

Porphyry sarcophagi: royalty and power

The Virgin Hodegetria

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

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

A tree full of life

Beyond the harmony of proportions

Transformations over the centuries

A controversial interpretation

Roger II’s strategic design

The chapel of san Castrense: an important renaissance work

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

The chystro: a place between earth and sky

The chapel of St. Benedict

The original design

The Cathedral over the centuries

The southern portico

Mosaic decoration

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

The Gualtiero Cathedral

The stone bible

A palimpsest of history

The balance between architecture and light