Monreale Cathedral
Monreale Cathedral | |
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Europe and North America |
Monreale Cathedral (
The church is a national monument of Italy and one of the most important attractions of Sicily. Its size is 102 meters (335') long and 40 meters (131') wide.
History
According to a legend,
In 1270 Saint Louis IX, King of France, brother of King Charles I of Naples, was buried here.
In 1547-1569 a portico was added to the northern side, designed by
Description
The archiepiscopal palace and monastic buildings on the south side were of great size and magnificence, and were surrounded by a massive precinct wall, crowned at intervals by twelve towers. This has been mostly rebuilt, and but little now remains except ruins of some of the towers, a great part of the monks' dormitory and frater, and the splendid cloister, completed about 1200.
The latter is well preserved, and is one of the finest european cloisters now extant both for size and beauty of detail. It is about 2,200 m2, with pointed arches decorated with diaper work, supported on pairs of columns in white marble, 216 in all, which were alternately plain and decorated by bands of patterns in gold and colors, made of glass tesserae, arranged either spirally or vertically from end to end of each shaft. The marble capitals are each carved with foliage, biblical scenes and allegories, no two being alike. At one angle, a square pillared projection contains the marble fountain or monks' lavatorium.
The plan of the church is based on models of Clunian origin from northern France. The facade flanked by two towers. like the cathedral of Cefalù, while the large three-apse choir is similar to one of the first three-apse churches..
The basilican nave is wide, with narrow
The other half, eastern in two senses, is both wider and higher than the nave. It also is divided into a central space with two aisles, each of the divisions ending at the east with an apse. The roofs throughout are of open woodwork very low in pitch, constructionally plain, but richly decorated with colour, now mostly restored. At the west end of the nave are two projecting towers, with a
The main internal features are the vast (6,500 m2; 70,000 sq. ft.) glass mosaics, executed in Byzantine style between the late 12th and the mid-13th centuries by both local and Venetians masters.[4] The tomb of William I of Sicily (the founder's father), a porphyry sarcophagus contemporary with the church, under a marble pillared canopy, and the founder William II's tomb, erected in 1575, were both 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 were rebuilt, and the whole of the injured part of the church restored a few years after the fire. The present organ, revised in 1967 by Ruffatti, has six manuals and 102 stops.
On the north of the choir are the tombs of
Two Baroque chapels were added in the 17th and 18th centuries, which are shut off from the rest of the church. The bronze doors of the mosaic-decorated portal on the left side was executed by Barisano da Trani in 1179.
Gallery
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The cloister
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Cloister
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Apse
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Apse interior
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Mosaics in the apse
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Mosaics in the nave
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Detail of the mosaic with Adam and Eve and the Tree of Knowledge
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Sarcophagi of William I and William II of Sicily
References
- ^ del Giudice, Michele (1702). Descrizione Del Real Tempio, E Monasterio Di Santa Maria Nuova, di Morreale ... Palermo: Regia Stamperia d'Agostino Epiro.
- ^ Lello, Giovanni Luigi (1596). Historia della chiesa di Monreale. Scritta da Giovanni Luigi Lello. Rome. p. 100.
- ^ Mortillaro, Vincenzo (1836). Guida per Palermo e pei suoi dintorni del barone V. Mortillaro. Palermo: Tipografia del giorn. Letterario.
- ^ Guida d'Italia. Touring Club Italiano.
Sources
- Kitzinger, Ernst (1991). I mosaici di Monreale. Palermo: Flaccovio Editore. ISBN 88-7804-065-7.
- AA. VV. (2004). Il duomo di Monreale - architettura di luce e icona. Abadir.
- Millunzi, Gaetano (1986). Il Duomo di Monreale. Rome: Vivere In.