Palermo Cathedral
St. Mary Magdalene

The lost chapel

In 1130, Elvira , the wife of King Roger II , had a chapel dedicated to St Mary Magdalene built as a mausoleum for the royal family. Its construction came shortly after another chapel was built to the north on the opposite side, on 15 May 1129, at the behest of Roger II, dedicated to the Crowned Goddess. The Magdalene Chapel was built close to the Cathedral, on its southern front, corresponding to the presbytery area, “ in cornu epistolae “. We have information on this building because it is mentioned in the ancient chronicles and is clearly identified in the 1187 diploma, written by Archbishop Gualtiero as a petition to the King, requesting the use of the chapel following the transformation of the sacred temple. Palermo Cathedral had remained virtually unchanged in its layout since 1071, i.e. for almost 100 years, when the Normans entered the city and converted the great Gami Mosque , previously the city’s mother church during the Byzantine period, to a Christian place of worship. Over time, traces of this chapel were lost, and many documents that could provide evidence of its exact location were lost around the middle of the 19th century. This led to the belief that the chapel had been demolished during this construction work. Nor is there any evidence left of this in the book “De Principe Templo Panormitano” (1728), transcribed by priest Giovanni Maria Amato , when he quotes the text of the aforementioned diploma of Archbishop Gualtiero.

The rediscovered chapel

The Gualtiero Cathedral

The liturgical spaces of the protesis and the diaconicon

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

The Bible carved in stone

The chapel of St. Benedict

The longest aisle

The Great Presbytery: a unique space for the cathedral

The cultural substrate through time

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

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

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

Porphyry sarcophagi: royalty and power

Beyond the harmony of proportions

The medieval city amidst monasticism and feudal aristocracy

Layers of different cultures decorate the external apses

Ecclesia munita

The Cathedral over the centuries

The Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene

A palimpsest of history

The southern portico

Gardens and architecture as a backdrop to the city of Palermo

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

A cloister of accentuated stylistic variety

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

The chapel of san Castrense: an important renaissance work

Transformations over the centuries

The Great Restoration

Roger II of hauteville: a sovereign protected by God

Interior decorations

A remarkable ceiling

The Kings’ Cathedrals

A controversial interpretation

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

Cefalù: settlement evidence through time

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

Characteristics of religious architecture in the romanesque period

The beginning of the construction site

Under the crosses of the Bema

The king’s mark

The lost chapel

The cemetery of kings

The balance between architecture and light

Mosaic decoration

A tree full of life

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

The dialogue between the architectures of the monumental complex

Survey of the royal tombs

The side aisles

The decorated facade

From the Mosque to the Cathedral

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

The towers facing the facade used as bell towers

Palermo: the happiest city

The mosaics of the apses

The senses tell Context 1

The stone bible

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

A space between the visible and the invisible

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

A polysemy of high-level artistic forms and content

Norman religious architecture with islamic influences in Sicily

Roger II’s strategic design

A chapel by an unknown designer based on repeated symmetries

The transformations of the hall through the centuries

Squaring the circle

Artistic elements in Peter’s ship

Worship services

The construction of Monreale Cathedral: between myth and history

The mosaics of the presbytery

The Virgin Hodegetria

A mixture of styles pervades the floor decorations

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

The towers and the western facade

A Northern population

The area of the Sanctuary

The original design

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

The chorus: beating heart of the cathedral

The Chapel of the Kings

A new Cathedral

The chystro: a place between earth and sky

Two initially similar towers, varied over time