Description
The Cathedral of Palermo is the city's "history book": in its walls the Normans, the Catalans, the Bourbons and an Arab past that has not been erased here all live side by side. It stands on the Cassaro, the street that runs down to the sea, and it is a monument in its own right, free-standing, with four façades to admire. Since 2015 it has been a UNESCO site.
The finest side is the one on the main street, the south porch: three pointed arches in Catalan Gothic style, built around 1465, and the turrets jutting out from the flank. The entrance portal dates from 1426. A marble balustrade with statues of the city's patron saints closes off the square in front.
One of the porch's columns comes from the mosque that once stood here and still bears a carved verse of the Quran: it is one of the details that most surprise you on the threshold of a Catholic cathedral.
Inside, the look is neoclassical, because the interior was redone from top to bottom between 1781 and 1801 to a design by Ferdinando Fuga. The royal tombs are of red porphyry, the stone reserved for emperors: Roger II and Frederick II rest here, and there are also the tombs of Henry VI and of Empress Constance of Hauteville.
In the right transept is the chapel of Saint Rosalia, with the patron saint's silver urn, a Baroque masterpiece of 1631-37 carried in procession on 15 July. In the treasury is kept the gold tiara known as that of Constance of Aragon, with enamels, pearls and gems.
On the floor of the nave runs the brass meridian line traced in 1801 by the astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi: a ray of sunlight, filtered through a hole in the dome, marks the passing of the zodiac signs. Below there is also a crypt with twenty-three bishops' sarcophagi.
This place has changed identity several times. It was a Byzantine church, then from 831 the great mosque, which the Normans hurriedly reconsecrated: the minaret became a bell tower. The earthquake of 1169 brought down the top of the bell tower, and in 1185 Archbishop Walter Offamil consecrated a new cathedral.
Don't miss
• The south porch.
• The royal tombs.
• The chapel of Saint Rosalia.
• The meridian line.
Did you know?
• Saint Rosalia's remains were found on 15 July 1624, just as the plague was fading.
• The sarcophagi of Frederick II and Henry VI had been prepared for the cathedral of Cefalù: Frederick II had them brought to Palermo in 1215.
• During the works of the late 18th century the cathedral moved for twenty years into the church of the Gesù.
The finest side is the one on the main street, the south porch: three pointed arches in Catalan Gothic style, built around 1465, and the turrets jutting out from the flank. The entrance portal dates from 1426. A marble balustrade with statues of the city's patron saints closes off the square in front.
One of the porch's columns comes from the mosque that once stood here and still bears a carved verse of the Quran: it is one of the details that most surprise you on the threshold of a Catholic cathedral.
Inside, the look is neoclassical, because the interior was redone from top to bottom between 1781 and 1801 to a design by Ferdinando Fuga. The royal tombs are of red porphyry, the stone reserved for emperors: Roger II and Frederick II rest here, and there are also the tombs of Henry VI and of Empress Constance of Hauteville.
In the right transept is the chapel of Saint Rosalia, with the patron saint's silver urn, a Baroque masterpiece of 1631-37 carried in procession on 15 July. In the treasury is kept the gold tiara known as that of Constance of Aragon, with enamels, pearls and gems.
On the floor of the nave runs the brass meridian line traced in 1801 by the astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi: a ray of sunlight, filtered through a hole in the dome, marks the passing of the zodiac signs. Below there is also a crypt with twenty-three bishops' sarcophagi.
This place has changed identity several times. It was a Byzantine church, then from 831 the great mosque, which the Normans hurriedly reconsecrated: the minaret became a bell tower. The earthquake of 1169 brought down the top of the bell tower, and in 1185 Archbishop Walter Offamil consecrated a new cathedral.
Don't miss
• The south porch.
• The royal tombs.
• The chapel of Saint Rosalia.
• The meridian line.
Did you know?
• Saint Rosalia's remains were found on 15 July 1624, just as the plague was fading.
• The sarcophagi of Frederick II and Henry VI had been prepared for the cathedral of Cefalù: Frederick II had them brought to Palermo in 1215.
• During the works of the late 18th century the cathedral moved for twenty years into the church of the Gesù.