Palermo Cathedral
The great Presbytery and the apses

Ecclesia munita

The Palermo Cathedral was designed as an ecclesia munita , a system already conceived for the Cefalù Cathedral and for the coeval construction of Monreale , creating a series of passages within the walls and in the upper parts, like walkways, protected by a series of battlements, placed at the crown of the sacred building.In the Presbytery area, these passages were opened up towards the inside of the church, with a colonnaded loggia, built with terracotta bricks, with lily capitals, covered with a painted plaster, with the colours that characterise the sacred area of the Sanctuary : porphyry red, which refers to royalty and divine nature, and the bluish green of serpentine, which refers to human nature, according to the canons of Byzantine tradition.

The interior of the church was treated with a “ pietra rasa ” finish and with lime plaster. Investigations carried out during the last restoration confirmed that no mosaic decoration was planned for the walls. The floor followed the classic decorative patterns of the period, consisting of marble slabs inlaid with geometrically designed cosmatesque mosaics. A residual part of the original flooring is visible today in the presbyteral area of the present choir. The external finish of the entire building was influenced by the cultural temperament of the time, with references to Islamic decoration, with walls covered in white stucco plaster and chromatic red and dark blue inserts. There is a one constant which is present throughout Norman architecture in southern Italy, consisting of the “ lava inlay ” ornamentation with geometric designs, symbols and floral depictions. This technique, which is not found in the Cefalù Cathedral, was instead widely used to decorate the apses of the Palermo Cathedral and the Monreale Cathedral.

The original design

Worship services

The liturgical spaces of the protesis and the diaconicon

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

The lost chapel

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

Palermo: the happiest city

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

The chapel of san Castrense: an important renaissance work

Ecclesia munita

Under the crosses of the Bema

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

The towers and the western facade

The Kings’ Cathedrals

The Chapel of the Kings

Interior decorations

Roger II’s strategic design

Beyond the harmony of proportions

A space between the visible and the invisible

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

Porphyry sarcophagi: royalty and power

A remarkable ceiling

The mosaics of the apses

The transformations of the hall through the centuries

The longest aisle

The senses tell Context 1

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

The Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene

The cemetery of kings

The area of the Sanctuary

The rediscovered chapel

A chapel by an unknown designer based on repeated symmetries

The stone bible

The construction of Monreale Cathedral: between myth and history

The Gualtiero Cathedral

The balance between architecture and light

A cloister of accentuated stylistic variety

The medieval city amidst monasticism and feudal aristocracy

Gardens and architecture as a backdrop to the city of Palermo

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

The Bible carved in stone

The towers facing the facade used as bell towers

From the Mosque to the Cathedral

The Great Presbytery: a unique space for the cathedral

Mosaic decoration

The chystro: a place between earth and sky

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

The Great Restoration

A new Cathedral

Transformations over the centuries

The chorus: beating heart of the cathedral

The chapel of St. Benedict

The cultural substrate through time

Two initially similar towers, varied over time

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

Roger II of hauteville: a sovereign protected by God

The Virgin Hodegetria

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

A controversial interpretation

A palimpsest of history

Artistic elements in Peter’s ship

Norman religious architecture with islamic influences in Sicily

The king’s mark

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

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

The Cathedral over the centuries

The decorated facade

Cefalù: settlement evidence through time

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

A tree full of life

The mosaics of the presbytery

Layers of different cultures decorate the external apses

The beginning of the construction site

Characteristics of religious architecture in the romanesque period

A polysemy of high-level artistic forms and content

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

Survey of the royal tombs

The southern portico

A mixture of styles pervades the floor decorations

The dialogue between the architectures of the monumental complex

The side aisles

Squaring the circle

A Northern population