Cathedral (Madonna Assunta)

It is located in the oldest sacred area of ​​Palermo, where the Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines and Arabs had raised their places of worship. When the Normans took the power, they immediately replaced the Muslim mosque with a Christian church.

However, in 1184 the archbishop of Palermo, Gualtiero Offamilio, knocked down the building and undertook the construction of a magnificent new cathedral, a symbol of religious power in the city. After one year, the church was consecrated and dedicated to Maria Assunta.

Over the following centuries, the original building was modified with additions and renovations. The union, a picturesque mix of styles, gives life to a great and on the whole quite harmonious ensemble. The façade, fastened between the high towers with mullioned windows and columns, is joined by two pointed arches to the bell tower that faces it.

Here, there is a large fourteenth century portal with bronze doors. The long right side is decorated with a spectacular portico in Gothic-Catalan style, under which there is a very rich portal, which is from the twelfth century as well. Finally, the particularly beautiful and charming part of the apse, the only one that has kept the original twelfth century forms.

The interior, large and white, is cold compared to the exterior. Along the walls, there are marble statues of the school of Gagini representing saints. In the first and second chapel of the nave on the right, there are royal and imperial tombs. Roger II, Henry VI of Swabia, Constance of Hauteville and Frederick II of Swabia rest here, among others.

All of them are in impressive porphyry sarcophagi: in the family tomb there is the founder of the Norman kingdom of Sicily, its destroyer, the involuntary cause of its end and its last beneficiary. Among the many chapels, we’d like to highlight Santa Rosalia, where the ashes of the patron saint of Palermo are kept in a silver urn from 1631.

Finally the precious treasure, including precious objects and embroideries found in the royal and imperial tombs (note, in particular, the gold tiara of Constance of Aragon), sacred vestments, chalices, monstrance, etc.