Monreale Cathedral
the context 2

The cultural substrate through time

Following the difficult thirty years of the conquest, Norman rule favourably influenced a balanced synthesis between Western Latin, Eastern Byzantine and Arab Islamic cultures , although Christianity was at the heart of the restoration, thanks to the unifying power of the Church.
With William II , Monreale became the Kingdom’s most important ecclesiastical lordship, thanks to the creation of a Bishopric Abbey even before the settlement appeared.
Mons Regalis, at the foot of Mount Caputo, was located within the vast park of the Norman kings, the flourishing and luxuriant Genoard , the last to be created on top of earlier Islamic gardens.During the reign of William II, it stretched from the city of Palermo to the east, in the valley of the Oreto River, until it reached the Alto Fonte Park to the south, where there is still a  chapel and a palace from Roger's era .
The Monreale area was known for two particular places: the village of Bahalara   and the Chapel of Santa Domenica Ciriaca which, in Islamic times, preserved the Greek episcopal tradition in Palermo. The sacred space was the last Christian stronghold during the Muslim domination, and is of historical importance as it was home to the Bishop of Palermo, Nicodemus, who returned to the city when the Normans arrived to convert the large mosque into a church for Christian worship.
In the early years, the Monreale Cathedral’s foundation was often linked to the Latin phrase “super sanctam Kiriacam”, which also appeared in William II’s donation deed, published in 1176.
The fact that the Cathedral is located next to the small church of St. Cyriaca, whose liturgical name refers to the Lord’s Day, Sunday, justified the sovereign’s decision to build it in the interest of greater political power, given its proximity to the archbishopric of Palermo. Significant traces of this are evident in the hamlet of a municipality near Monreale. Its name, Santa Dominica, traces back to the Latin translation of the original Greek name for the now abandoned primitive place of prayer.

Two initially similar towers, varied over time

Ecclesia munita

The Virgin Hodegetria

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

A new Cathedral

The Kings’ Cathedrals

A space between the visible and the invisible

Interior decorations

The chorus: beating heart of the cathedral

The balance between architecture and light

A polysemy of high-level artistic forms and content

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

Artistic elements in Peter’s ship

The mosaics of the presbytery

Survey of the royal tombs

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

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

A palimpsest of history

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

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

The longest aisle

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

The area of the Sanctuary

The transformations of the hall through the centuries

The construction of Monreale Cathedral: between myth and history

Palermo: the happiest city

Roger II of hauteville: a sovereign protected by God

Cefalù: settlement evidence through time

The medieval city amidst monasticism and feudal aristocracy

Norman religious architecture with islamic influences in Sicily

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

The Great Restoration

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

Squaring the circle

The beginning of the construction site

A remarkable ceiling

The Gualtiero Cathedral

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

Layers of different cultures decorate the external apses

The senses tell Context 1

A cloister of accentuated stylistic variety

A mixture of styles pervades the floor decorations

The cultural substrate through time

The lost chapel

Transformations over the centuries

Under the crosses of the Bema

The side aisles

A chapel by an unknown designer based on repeated symmetries

The towers and the western facade

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

The original design

The Great Presbytery: a unique space for the cathedral

A Northern population

The mosaics of the apses

Characteristics of religious architecture in the romanesque period

A tree full of life

Worship services

The decorated facade

The stone bible

Roger II’s strategic design

The Chapel of the Kings

Gardens and architecture as a backdrop to the city of Palermo

A controversial interpretation

The liturgical spaces of the protesis and the diaconicon

Porphyry sarcophagi: royalty and power

The king’s mark

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

The southern portico

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

From the Mosque to the Cathedral

The Cathedral over the centuries

Mosaic decoration

The Bible carved in stone

Beyond the harmony of proportions

The chapel of St. Benedict

The chapel of san Castrense: an important renaissance work

The cemetery of kings

The chystro: a place between earth and sky

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

The rediscovered chapel

The towers facing the facade used as bell towers

The dialogue between the architectures of the monumental complex

The Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene