hearing
In the Chapel of Santa Rosalia, praises are sung to the Virgin Santuzza. It echoes the “Te Deum Laudamus”. This same hymn was sung in 1625, when the Sacred Bones passed through the streets of the city, miraculously putting an end to the terrible plague epidemic that had devasted Palermo for years, causing pain, suffering and death.
smell
The scent of fresh flowers fills the elegant Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. Arrangements with wild flowers and wheat adorn and surround the precious lapis lazuli altar, designed by Cosimo Fonsaga in 1653, where the Blessed Sacrament is kept.
sight
The wooden ceiling covering the central hall and the side aisles was remarkable. The oak wood of the roof was lacquered and decorated in the resplendent colours of silver, white, yellow and black. In the concave, blue-coloured border, there were inscriptions in Greek characters which made the cover even more elegant. In the central aisle, the roof framework is reminiscent of St Peter’s ship leading the faithful to salvation. Those who entered the Cathedral, looking upwards, could also admire another peculiarity: the Dromico roof, a sort of wooden walkway that allowed for the viewing, control and maintenance of the entire aisle.
touch
In 1794, a sundial was created by Giuseppe Piazza at the end of the central aisle at the behest of Archbishop Filippo Lopez y Royo. The Palermo University professor and astronomer had precious materials used in its construction: it consists of a prismatic brass bar, slightly raised, set into the floor and finished with a white marble edging. Holes in the bar indicate when the sun enters the various signs of the Zodiac. These are represented on the floor with polychrome marble inlays. Another element of the Cathedral’s sundial is the gnomon, made by drilling a hole in a limestone and covering it with a metal plate. It is located in the dome in front of the Chapel of San Francesco di Paola.
