Palermo Cathedral
The central body: the aisles

The longest aisle

The Palermo Cathedral had the distinction of being the largest church in terms of length, compared to other contemporary churches in Sicily, with reference to the cathedral buildings in Cefalù, Catania and Messina . It is likely that this particular feature is due to the fact that the ‘Norman’ cathedral was built on the pre-existing great Gami Mosque  in Palermo, while the other churches were built ‘ab fundamentis‘. Throughout the 12th century and part of the 13th century, the entrance to the Gualterian cathedral was located on the southern side, probably on the site of a pre-existing access room under the portico, also known as the Loggia or Tocco .The main or “canonical” west façade, left unfinished, began construction in the second half of the 13th century and was followed by the construction of the large marble portal , in around 1350, splayed with recessed lintels in the late Romanesque style.
The hall was composed according to the canonical tripartition, divided by the arches that delimited the main aisle from the side aisles. It’s intended appearance was to appear very elegant and slender. The central part rose above the side walls with high walls on ten pointed archways on each side, supported by twenty-two groups of Egyptian granite columns, described by historians as Theban columns with Tuscolan capitals , using the tetrastyle system . This system was then followed during the Renaissance by Giorgio di Faccio , for the construction of the San Giorgio dei Genovesi  Church in Palermo’s Loggia dei Mercanti district .
The central area was lit by large single-lancet windows, framed in the wall plane with an alternating score of voids and solids followed, on the external façade, by a series of blind single-lancet windows defined by arches with recessed lintels and framed by small marble and porphyry columns.

Two initially similar towers, varied over time

The side aisles

The southern portico

The Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene

Palermo: the happiest city

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

The chapel of san Castrense: an important renaissance work

Interior decorations

A polysemy of high-level artistic forms and content

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

From the Mosque to the Cathedral

The cultural substrate through time

The decorated facade

Artistic elements in Peter’s ship

Norman religious architecture with islamic influences in Sicily

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

The Virgin Hodegetria

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

The construction of Monreale Cathedral: between myth and history

Cefalù: settlement evidence through time

A controversial interpretation

Characteristics of religious architecture in the romanesque period

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

The original design

Layers of different cultures decorate the external apses

A Northern population

The chystro: a place between earth and sky

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

Roger II’s strategic design

A mixture of styles pervades the floor decorations

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

The towers and the western facade

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

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

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

The medieval city amidst monasticism and feudal aristocracy

The cemetery of kings

Roger II of hauteville: a sovereign protected by God

The king’s mark

The lost chapel

The mosaics of the presbytery

The stone bible

Ecclesia munita

The mosaics of the apses

Gardens and architecture as a backdrop to the city of Palermo

The rediscovered chapel

Beyond the harmony of proportions

Porphyry sarcophagi: royalty and power

The transformations of the hall through the centuries

A chapel by an unknown designer based on repeated symmetries

The Cathedral over the centuries

A new Cathedral

The area of the Sanctuary

The liturgical spaces of the protesis and the diaconicon

A remarkable ceiling

The beginning of the construction site

The chapel of St. Benedict

A palimpsest of history

The Chapel of the Kings

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

Worship services

Survey of the royal tombs

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

The Great Presbytery: a unique space for the cathedral

Under the crosses of the Bema

The longest aisle

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

Transformations over the centuries

Squaring the circle

The senses tell Context 1

The Gualtiero Cathedral

Mosaic decoration

The Bible carved in stone

A space between the visible and the invisible

The Great Restoration

The dialogue between the architectures of the monumental complex

The balance between architecture and light

The chorus: beating heart of the cathedral

The Kings’ Cathedrals

The towers facing the facade used as bell towers

A tree full of life

A cloister of accentuated stylistic variety

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