The Cathedral at Monreale -- a jewel of midieval
religous architecture along with its perfect cloister
adjacent
After visiting the two very different churches in Palermo, we ventured south to the suburb of Monreale (royal mountain) which is known for the greatest Norman church, Cathedral of Santa Maria la Nuove, and its adjoining monastery depicted at the top of the page. This church was built by Roger II's grandson (and last Norman king in Sicily), William II in 1174. It is very much the logical successor of the two very similar Norman churches: Palermo's Cappella Palatina and Cefalu's cathedral.
Like a good Norman church, Monreale's cathedral beautifully blends Arab, Byzantine and Norman elements. Inside it is spectacular and spacious with every inch of the walls glimmering with mosaics. Upon first entering, one sees the Norman Jesus Pantocrantor (Pantocrantor is the Greek word for blessing).
The mosaics tell the stories of the old and new testaments in precise order prescribed by one of the church's Nicene councils meant to end the problems the Church was having with iconoclasts. Altogether, these mosaics cover over 6000 square meters, second only to St. Sofia in Istanbul and bigger than the better known St. Mark's in Venice. (The Venetian mosaic masters helped here along with local Byzantine artists.)
Included in the mosaics is the obligatory depiction of the king being crowned by God -- in this case, Jesus himself crowns William who was only 18 when he became king (and 21 when he started the cathedral). He needed the majesty of this place to convince his diverse subjects that the natural order was for him to be on top. William was to die without an heir at age 36 even though he showed true ecumenical spirit by adopting the Arab custom of the harem.
While I missed the ceiling shot at the Norman Palace in Palermo, I got this one although it's a little blurry. It shows the Arab wood stalactite style.
Even the pillars have mosaics on them -- and a lot of other ornamentation as well:
Directly flanking the cathedral is another jewel, the perfectly square cloister of the Benedictine Monastery also founded by William II. From the picture at top, you can see that the cloister is a perfect square. This is one of the finest Muslim-inspired Christian buildings as you can see from the picture below:
Closer up, you can notice the mixture of lava in these Arab arches. Good Sicilian builders find ways to get that Etna stone into everything:
As you get closer, you will notice the mosaic inlays in some of the arches:
But what the cloister is best known for is the Romanesque capitals at the top of the these pillars: 228 pairs showing scenes from the bible, classical themes, and contemporary (including William giving the church to the Madonna). None of these pairs is ever repeated. Here's one of them:
The next picture shows a bit of the capital in the upper right plus hints at the overall effect of this squared space defined by these double pillars and Arab arches.
Behind the cloister we found a park usually missed by the tourists bordered by an elementary school. The park was busy with the kids enjoying recess on this sunny October day. Behind the park, the hillside drops precipitously as you might expect since the Abbey was originally built with 12 towers and thick walls so it could defend itself against the Muslims if they ever rebelled (they did after William II died over high taxes imposed by the Abbot).
Then we returned to the hotel in Palermo for lunch, followed by an afternoon visit to a middle-age town high in the mountains (and now a haven for scientists!) called Erice. Please join us by clicking here.
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