Cattedrale di Palermo

1. SICILIA: la Cattedrale di Palermo
The splendid Cathedral of Palermo, with its elegant arches
and towers, tells the story in stone of this ancient city.
This majestic jewel was built in 1185 on the site of a previous
Christian Basilica, which had also been a Mosque in the days
of the Arab occupation. Thus, right from its foundations the
story of the previous occupations and powers in Palermo are
evident. Walter Offamil, an Anglo-Norman Archbishop
commissioned its original construction during the reign of
Wiliam II. However, much of its unique Norman-Arab style
was radically altered in a renovation, which lasted from the
late 1700 until the Nineteenth century.
The oldest part remaining is the presbytery, consisting of
three apses between two small towers, decorated on the
outside in Arabic style with intersecting blind arches.
Another four Norman towers stand at each corner of the
cathedral. The façade faces the street, spanned by two large
arches connecting the Archbishop's residence to the church.
High above the main portal of the Cathedral, a series of blind
arches, columns, mullioned windows, intersecting arches,
like a stone lacing, animate the façade. Opposite, on the
other side of the street stands the bell tower. Medieval at
the base, becoming increasingly recent as it rises. The four
smaller turrets around the bell tower were added in the
eighteen hundreds.