Palatine Chapel

Started in 1130, the year of the coronation of Ruggero II, the first king of Sicily. It was completed over a period of 13 years and consecrated according to an inscription in the dome, in 1143. This church, defined by Maupassant as the finest religious jewel ever dreamed up by the human mind, is designed, in visual terms, merging many different styles of which Sicily was formed: the European, Sicilian, Byzantine or the Arabic.

The chapel is shaped like a western basilica with three naves divided by granite columns with rich gilded Corinthian capitals. With a more Western-style, though influenced by southern taste, the decorated floors and the inlays of the steps, balustrades and of the lower part of the walls, as well as the giant pulpit (small stage), set with gold, malachite and porphyry, and the Easter candelabrum, are a veritable bestiary of marble, donated by Archbishop Ugo di Palermo at the coronation of Guglielmo, son of Ruggero II.

The mosaics are the finest products of Byzantine art, unmatched in any of the churches of Constantinople. Differing from the others, the Christ Pantocrator of the dome, to the angels surrounding him and the Evangelists engrossed in their studies, which are the oldest mosaics.

The Islamic tradition is finally represented by the wooden ceiling of muqarnas (stalactites), as the most unexpected covering for a Christian church. This is, in fact, the classic ceiling that we would expect to find in the largest and most elegant mosques but never in a church.

Intricate decorations adorn the stalactites and, more unique than rare in the history of Islamic art, there are decorations comprising human figures. The Arabic artists, in fact, in the tolerant atmosphere of Norman Palermo, were convinced to take a risk with these types of figures and so, with the help of binoculars, we can distinguish today realistic scenes of daily life of dignitaries and busy maids.