Itinerary A
Palermo
sight

[5] The vertical momentum of the towers

At first glance, the western façade of the Cathedral has a compositional structure that is independent from the rest of the building, as if it were a fortress and a transversal link to the two towers surrounding it.
The massive vertical momentum of the towers and the fact that they belong to the Norman period, however, still conceals an Islamic military reference to the presence of tall square parallelepipeds crowned by smaller structures. Taking a closer look at the imposing and compact profile of the cathedral towers, which dominate the landscape of the city, the original defensive function of the area entrusted to them becomes evident.