Monreale Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church in Monreale, Metropolitan Town of Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy. Just one of the best existent examples of Norman architecture, it was begun in 1174 by William II of Sicily. In 1182 the church, committed to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, was, by a bull of Pope Lucius III, elevated to the rank of a metropolitan cathedral as the seat of the diocese of Monreale, which was elevated to the Archdiocese of Monreale in 1183. Given that 2015 it has been element of the Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale UNESCO Planet Heritage web-site.
The church is a nationwide monument of Italy and one of the most essential sights of Sicily. Its sizing is 102 meters long and 40 meters wide.
In accordance to a legend, William II of Sicily fell asleep beneath a carob tree when looking in the woods close to Monreale. The Holy Virgin appeared to him in dream, suggesting him to make a church in this article. Soon after eradicating the tree, a treasure was found in its roots, whose golden coins had been made use of to finance the construction. It is more very likely that the church was portion of a program of substantial constructions in competitors with the then bishop of Palermo, Walter Ophamil, who had ordered the massive Cathedral of Palermo. The design of Monreale, started off in 1172, was approved by Pope Alexander III with a bull on 30 December 1174. Functions, such as an annexed abbey, were being accomplished only in 1267 and the church consecrated at the presence of Pope Clement IV. In 1178 Pope Lucius III founded the archdiocese of Monreale and the abbey church was elevated to the rank of cathedral. The archbishops attained by the kings of Sicily a broad array of privileges and lands in the entire Italian peninsula.
In 1270 Louis IX, King of France, brother of King Charles I of Naples, was buried right here.
In 1547-1569 a portico was added to the northern aspect, made by Giovanni Domenico Gagini and Fazio Gagini, in Renaissance type, coated by a cross vault and showcasing eleven round arches supported by Corinthian columns. In 1559 most of the interior pavement was additional.
The archiepiscopal palace and monastic buildings on the south facet have been of great sizing and magnificence, and ended up surrounded by a massive precinct wall, crowned at intervals by twelve towers. This has been mostly rebuilt, and but minimal now remains besides ruins of some of the towers, a wonderful element of the monks’ dormitory and frater, and the splendid cloister, finished about 1200.
The latter is nicely preserved, and is a single of the finest Italian cloisters now extant each for dimension and magnificence of element. It is about 2,200 m2, with pointed arches embellished with diaper perform, supported on pairs of columns in white marble, 216 in all, which were being alternately simple and adorned by bands of designs in gold and colors, manufactured of glass tesserae, organized either spirally or vertically from finish to close of just about every shaft. The marble capitals are just about every carved with foliage, biblical scenes and allegories, no two getting alike. At just one angle, a sq. pillared projection includes the marble fountain or monks’ lavatorium, evidently the operate of Muslim sculptors.
The church’s plan is a mixture of Japanese Rite and Roman Catholic arrangement. The nave is like an Italian basilica, whilst the huge triple-apsed choir is identical to just one of the early a few-apsed churches, of which so numerous examples even now exist in Syria and in other places in the Middle East. It is like two fairly different church buildings place alongside one another endwise.
The basilican nave is broad, with slim aisles. On just about every side, monolithic columns of grey oriental granite (other than one particular, which is of cipolin marble) help 8 pointed arches much stilted. The capitals of these (generally Corinthian) are also of the classical interval. There is no triforium, but a substantial clerestory with large two-gentle home windows, with easy tracery like these in the nave-aisles and in the course of the church, which give enough mild.
The other fifty percent, jap in two senses, is each wider and bigger than the nave. It also is divided into a central space with two aisles, each and every of the divisions ending at the east with an apse. The roofs all through are of open up woodwork quite very low in pitch, constructionally simple, but richly decorated with color, now primarily restored. At the west conclude of the nave are two projecting towers, with a narthex (entrance) amongst them. A substantial open atrium, which at the time existed at the west, is now wholly ruined, obtaining been replaced by a Renaissance portico by Giovanni Domenico and Fazio Gagini (1547–1569).
The major inside functions are the huge (6,500 m2) glass mosaics, executed in Byzantine type among the late 12th and the mid-13th hundreds of years by both of those neighborhood and Venetians masters. The tomb of William I of Sicily (the founder’s father), a porphyry sarcophagus modern day with the church, under a marble pillared canopy, and the founder William II’s tomb, erected in 1575, have been each shattered by a fire, which in 1811 broke out in the choir, injuring some of the mosaics and destroying all the fine walnut choir-fittings, the organs and most of the choir roof. The tombs ended up rebuilt, and the full of the hurt portion of the church restored a number of yrs after the hearth. The existing organ, revised in 1967 by Ruffatti, has 6 manuals and 102 stops.
On the north of the choir are the tombs of Margaret of Navarre, spouse of William I, and her two sons Roger and Henry, with each other with an urn made up of the viscera of Saint Louis of France, who died in 1270. The pavement of the triple choir, while a lot restored, is a specimen of marble and porphyry mosaic in opus alexandrinum, with indications of Arab impact in its primary traces. The mosaic pavement of the nave was accomplished in the 16th century, and has disks of porphyry and granite with marble bands intermingled with irregular traces.
Two Baroque chapels ended up extra in the 17th and 18th hundreds of years, which are shut off from the relaxation of the church. The bronze doorways of the mosaic-embellished portal on the remaining side was executed by Barisano da Trani in 1179.
Posted by andrea.guagni 1,5 Million on 2022-05-01 09:24:45
Tagged: , duomo , cathedral , monreale , palermo , italy , italia , sicily , sicilia , heritage , bizantine , mosaic
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