Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cattedrale di Palermo
CATHEDRAL
(
www.cattedrale.palermo.it
;
Corso Vittorio Emanuele; Norman tombs & treasury adult/reduced €3/1.50; 8am-7pm)
A feast of geometric patterns, ziggurat crenulations, majolica cupolas and blind arches,
Palermo's cathedral has suffered aesthetically from multiple reworkings over the centuries
but remains a prime example of the extraordinary Arab-Norman style unique to Sicily.
The interior, while impressive in scale, is essentially a marble shell whose most interest-
ing features are its treasury and royal Norman tombs.
Construction began in 1184 at the behest of Palermo's archbishop, Walter of the Mill
(Gualtiero Offamiglio), an Englishman who was tutor to William II. Walter held great
power and had unlimited funds at his disposal, but with the building of the magnificent
cathedral at Monreale he felt his power diminishing. His solution was to order construc-
tion of an equally magnificent cathedral in Palermo. This was erected on the location of a
9th-century mosque (itself built on a former chapel); a detail from the mosque's original
decor is visible at the southern porch, where a column is inscribed with a passage from the
Koran. The cathedral's proportions and the grandeur of its exterior became a statement of
the power struggle between Church and throne occurring at the time, a potentially danger-
ous situation that was tempered by Walter's death (in 1191), which prevented him from
seeing (and boasting about) the finished building.
Since then the cathedral has been much altered, sometimes with great success (as in
Antonio Gambara's 15th-century three-arched portico that took 200 years to complete and
became a masterpiece of Catalan Gothic architecture), and sometimes with less fortunate
results (as in Ferdinando Fuga's clumsy dome, added between 1781 and 1801). Thank-
fully Fuga's handiwork did not extend to the eastern exterior, which is still adorned with
the exotic interlacing designs of Walter's original cathedral. The southwestern facade was
laid in the 13th and 14th centuries, and is a beautiful example of local craftsmanship in the
Gothic style. The cathedral's entrance - through Gambara's three magnificent arches - is
fronted by gardens and a statue of Santa Rosalia, one of Palermo's patron saints. A beauti-
ful painted intarsia decoration above the arches depicts the tree of life in a complex
Islamic-style geometric composition of 12 roundels that show fruit, humans and all kinds
of animals. It's thought to date back to 1296.
To the left as you enter the cathedral are several royal Norman tombs, which contain the
remains of two of Sicily's greatest rulers, Roger II (rear left) and Frederick II of Hohen-
staufen (front left) as well as Henry VI and William II. A joint ticket grants access to the
