SICILY: MONREALE AND PALERMO CATHEDRALS

March 17, 2024

We lucked out in finding a parking space just a few blocks from the Monreale Cathedral, which was about a 30-minute drive from Palermo proper but still part of the metropolitan area.

I love how the neighborhoods are built up around these gems of churches in Europe, as if the church is just part of the neighborhood.

Hey, there's another one of the famous Sicilian pine cones, this one over a foot tall and a decoration at an outdoor cafe.

The Cathedral was built between 1174 and 1182 as the result of a sleepy king. William II of Sicily had fallen asleep under a carob tree near here, and in a dream the Holy Virgin told him to build a church on that spot. When the carob tree was removed so the church could be built, a cache of gold coins was found among the roots and used to finance the church. What a great story!

The official name of this church is the Chapel of San Castrense di Monreale. Saint Castrense is the patron saint of Monreale. William II was given his relic as a wedding gift, and he laid it under the high altar of the cathedral.

Like the Palatine Chapel we had just visited, the church is an amalgamation of Norman, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque styles.  It is an earlier, larger, and somewhat lesser version of the Palatine Chapel, which was based on the design of this church. Like the Palatine Chapel, this cathedral is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.

SICILY: PALERMO'S ROYAL PALACE AND PALATINE CHAPEL

 March 17, 2024

We set off for Palermo around 9:00 AM in our very cramped VW Golf. 

It was supposed to be a 2.5 hour drive, but we put the wrong destination in our phone's maps app, and we ended up off track. We lost about 40 minutes, but we still made it on time to our first destination of the day, the Royal Palace of Palermo, where we had timed-entry tickets to the Palatine Chapel.

The Palatine Chapel is inside the Royal Palace (aka Norman Palace of Palermo), which was the home of the Sicilian kings and/or seat of the government until 1946. Since then it has been the seat of the Sicilian Regional Assembly. It is the oldest royal residence in all of Europe and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The palace dates back to the 9th century, although it had a major makeover in the 12th century. The oldest part of the current structure is on the right end, below.

Roger II of Sicily, also known as Roger the Norman, was the first king of Sicily from 1130 until 1154 and is considered the founder of the Kingdom of Sicily, unifying the Norman conquests in southern Italy, Sicily, and Malta under his rule. He was known for practicing tolerance for the variety of ethnicities and cultures that lived in his realm. An interesting fact about Roger II: He married three times and had nine legitimate children and at least five known illegitimate children.

One of his longest-lasting accomplishments was the building of a spectacular chapel inside the above palace. It was the primary reason we were hurrying to Palermo. 

The Palatine Chapel (or Cappella Palatina in Italian) is perhaps the most beautiful single room I have entered anywhere in the world. Commissioned by Roger II in 1132, it took eight years to build and is a unique blend of Norman, Byzantine, classical, and Arab architecture. 

The door to the inside of the chapel is rather inconspicuous compared to the ornate colonnade that surrounds the inner courtyard of the palace. 

The wooden beams of the ceiling, brick arches, and Corinthian columns are beautiful, but what really distinguishes the entrance and the interior are the mosaics.