Touching the mosaic tiles on the western side of the fountain room gives you a unique feeling that you don't get every day. As usual, the mosaics do not deal with themes related to spiritual and ecclesiastical life, but they have a secular theme. The mosaic panels, Byzantine in style and Islamic in ...

An altarpiece depicting the Ascension, painted by Vincenzo da Pavia in 1533, stands at the centre of the high altar, while a sumptuous tabernacle made of lapis lazuli sits beneath it. Known since ancient times, and coming from China and Afghanistan, lapis lazuli had a price similar to gold. Deep blu...

The Martorana floor tiles have intense colours and the lasting coolness of marble. The Martorana floor consists of eleven opus sectile panels, decorated with quincunxes and geometric motifs. The entire floor is made of white, porphyry, serpentine and antique yellow marble and is characterised by a s...

Touching the bell tower means touching smooth and rough surfaces. The decorations, in fact, determine an alternation that makes the construction impressive and dynamic. The shapes engraved on the bell tower are varied: clovers, interlaces, circles, rhombuses and even star motifs, the latter being ty...

The ceiling of the Palatine Chapel is characterised by muqarnas, an ornamental decoration typical of Islamic architecture and most commonly found in the vaults of buildings. The interplay of joints and volumes creates an evocative composition, which one would like to be able to caress in order to ap...

Become part of the scene depicted in the mosaic for a moment: you can touch the tiles that make up the royal throne, the symbol of the king's magnificence and the place reserved for sovereigns. Touching the fruit of the skilful work of the mosaic artists from the East can give you an idea of the con...

Touching the tiles that make up the floor with your hands, you can follow the perimeters of the shapes and patterns that oriental and Mediterranean craftsmen made for the Palatine Chapel. On the floor, in fact, complex lattice patterns coexist, intertwining to form starry polygons, typical elements ...

The royal throne is located on the western wall, opposite the sanctuary. It is Romanesque in style, raised by five steps and decorated with opus sectile marble. Touching the cold marble, the porphyry stands out among all of them, a material that over the centuries became a symbol of strength and glo...

Craftsmen, stonemasons, artists, marble workers: there were many craftsmen working on the extension of the Qasr and the construction of King Roger's personal chapel, the Palatine. In the space in front of the palace, a Byzantine mosaic artist chooses the tiles for the mosaic cycle. They examine them...

The sarcophagi, used as burial places by Roger II, Constance of Hauteville, Henry VI and Frederick II, were carved using elements of red porphyry, a symbol of royalty and power. Used by the Egyptians and during the Ptolemaic dynasty, after the conquest of Egypt by Augustus, porphyry also became a pr...