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41-523: The church was erected in 1185 by Walter Ophamil , the Norman archbishop of Palermo and King William II 's minister, on the area of an earlier Byzantine basilica. By all accounts this earlier church was founded by Pope Gregory I and was later turned into a mosque by the Arabs after their conquest of the city in the 9th century. Ophamil is buried in a sarcophagus in the church's crypt. The medieval edifice had

82-461: A basilica plan with three apses. The upper orders of the corner towers were built between the 14th and the 15th centuries, while in the early Renaissance period the southern porch was added. The present neoclassical appearance dates from the work carried out over the two decades 1781 to 1801, supervised by Ferdinando Fuga and Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia . During this period the great retable by Gagini , decorated with statues, friezes and reliefs,

123-789: A local Sicilian workshop from a single Roman column shaft, possibly from the Baths of Caracalla or the Baths of Diocletian in Rome . They ostensibly took inspiration from the porphyry sarcophagi of late Roman Emperors that were still visible in the 12th century in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople , including those of Constantine the Great and his successors up to Marcian as described by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in

164-512: A new cathedral in Palermo at this time, to counter the effects of the beautiful Monreale, the new mausoleum of the Hauteville dynasty . On William's death in 1189, Walter fought vainly against the archbishop of Monreale over the body of the king. In 1184, Walter gave his support to the marriage of Constance , daughter of Roger II , with Henry , son of Frederick Barbarossa . He was one of

205-616: A precious 15th-century Madonna . Two lintelled ogival arcades, stepping over the street, connect the western façade to the bell tower, which is annexed to the Archbishops Palace (now Museo Diocesano). This has a squared appearance adorned in the upper part by a fine crown of smaller belfries and small arcades. The south side has outstretching turrets and a wide portico (the current main entrance) in Gothic-Catalan style, with three arcades, erected around 1465 and opening to

246-672: A series of bronze portrait medals of personages at the court. From 1466 to 1471 Laurana was in Sicily . Works of this period include the Mastrantonio Chapel and the tomb of Pietro Speciale in the church of S. Francesco in Palermo , the side door of the church of St. Marguerite in Sciacca , Madonna and Child sculptures in the cathedrals of Palermo (1471) and Noto , and a bust allegedly portraying Eleanor of Aragon , now in

287-624: Is impossible to chart his stylistic development, his later work made in France shows some assimilation of northern realism , which is absent from the work executed in Italy. Laurana was born in Vrana , near Zadar , in Dalmatia . Under Venetian rule Vrana was named La Vrana , from romance de Vrana, giving the surname used by Francesco Laurana: LA VRANA -> LAVRANA which is read like LAURANA because

328-491: Is the left side, which has an early 16th-century portal by Antonello Gagini . The South-Western façade, looking at the Archbishop Palace, dates from the 14th to 15th centuries. The interior has a Latin cross plan, with a nave and two aisles divided by pilasters. In the first two chapels of the right aisle are the tomb of emperors and royal figures moved here in the 18th century from their original sites (mostly from

369-526: The De Ceremoniis , four of which now stand in front of the İstanbul Archaeology Museums ' main building. The sarcophagus of Frederick II is surmounted by a canopy with porphyry columns and the urn is supported by two pairs of lions, together with those of Frederick II were also preserved the remains of Peter II of Sicily . Odo of Bayeux , half-brother of William the Conqueror , was buried in

410-687: The Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo, Sicily. In 1471 he traveled to Naples where he executed the sculpture of the Virgin in the Sta. Barbara Chapel. From 1474 to 1477 Laura spent three years in Urbino , where his relative Luciano Laurana worked. He then went to Marseille, where he built a small chapel in the Cathedral of S. Marie Majeure (1475–1481), the first structure in France designed entirely in

451-577: The 18th-century alterations) are also precious, as well as a marble statue of the Madonna with Child by Francesco Laurana and pupils (1469), a 13th-century polychrome Crucifix by Manfredi Chiaramonte, the holy water stoup on the fourth pilaster (by Domenico Gagini) and the Madonna della Scala by Antonello Gagini, on the high altar of the new sacristy. The Relics Chapel contains the relics of St. Christina, St. Ninfa, St. Cosma, St. Agatha and St. Mamilianus, first patron of Palermo. The crypt, accessed from

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492-603: The Kingdom." Modern historiography has been less kind. John Julius Norwich calls him "the most baleful influence on the kingdom," because "there is no evidence of his having taken a single constructive step to improve the Sicilian position or to advance Sicilian fortunes." He has been reckoned a leader of the feudatories against which all Sicilian kings fought for their royal prerogatives and, by Ferdinand Chalandon , as an imperialist who supported Henry in order to stand opposed to

533-426: The basilica itself). Here are the remains of Emperor Henry VI , his son Frederick II , as well as those of Peter II of Sicily . A Roman sarcophagus is the tomb of Constance of Aragon , Frederick's wife. Under the mosaic baldachins are the tombs of Roger II , the first King of Sicily, and his daughter Constance . The last two were once located in the transept of the Cathedral of Cefalù . The Sacrament chapel, at

574-594: The breviary parchment of the 1452 coat of arms with an Archbishop Simon from Bologna. The system of bells currently mounted is composed of eight elements assembled with the Ambrosian. Walter Ophamil Walter Ophamil or Offamil ( fl. 1160–1191), italianised as Gualtiero Offamiglio or Offamilio from Latin Ophamilius , was the archdeacon of Cefalù , dean of Agrigento , and archbishop of Palermo (1168–1191), called " il primo ministro ",

615-475: The cathedral in 1097. Aside from burials, Vittorio Amedeo II of Savoy and Charles III of Spain were crowned in the cathedral. The "treasure of the cathedral", which is composed of sacred vestments from the 16th and 18th centuries, frontals, monstrances, chalices, a breviary with miniatures of the 15th century and the gold crown of Constance of Aragon. Other precious objects, enamels, embroidery and jewelry, are exposed in central message boards such as for example

656-524: The cathedral, reworked so many times over the centuries, Walter left as architectural nods to his patronage of the arts the chapels of Santa Cristina and Santo Spirito. The latter is the "church of the Vespers," the church in front of which the first insult and the first murder of the Sicilian Vespers took place in 1282. Richard of S. Germano called him and Matthew "the two firmest columns of

697-455: The end of the left aisles, is decorated with precious stones and lapislazuli . To the right, in the presbytery , is the chapel of Saint Rosalia, patron of Palermo, closed by a richly ornamental bronze gate, with relics and a 17th-century silver urn which is object of particular devotion. The 1466 Gothic-Catalan style wooden choir and the marble remains of the Gagini 's retable (removed during

738-529: The famous Crown of Constance of Sicily, a golden tiara found in her tomb in 1491. The cathedral has a meridian, which may be considered as an earlier type of heliometer (solar "observatory"), one of a number constructed in Italian churches, mainly in the 17th and 18th centuries. This one was built in 1801 by the famous astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi , the director of the Observatory of Palermo who discovered

779-522: The first fruits of a plan of the king and the vice-chancellor, Matthew of Ajello , began to flower. The pope issued the first of a short series of bulls favouring the cause of creating a new archdiocese in Sicily, centred on the Benedictine Cluniac abbey of Monreale , a recent foundation of William's. The abbot of said abbey would automatically be consecrated archbishop by any prelate of

820-472: The first minister of the crown. He came to Sicily with Peter of Blois and Stephen du Perche at the direction of Rotrou, Archbishop of Rouen , cousin of Queen Margaret of Navarre , originally as a tutor to the royal children of William I of Sicily and Margaret. His mother was Bona, a patron of the Abbey of Cluny and a devota et fidelis nostra of the king in 1172. His father is unknown. From his name he

861-402: The first minor planet or asteroid , Ceres . The device itself is quite simple: a tiny hole in one of the minor domes acts as pinhole camera , projecting an image of the sun onto the floor ). There is a bronze line, la meridiana on the floor, running precisely N/S. At solar noon (circa 12:00 in winter, 13:00 in summer), the sun image passes through this line. At different times of the year

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902-459: The inevitable civil war. In literature, Walter, on the basis of his supposed English birth, was credited as the author of a Latin rudiments by John Bale in the 1550s. Léopold Hervieux identified Walter with the Anglo-Norman author Gualterus Anglicus . He went so far as to suggest that Gualterus' (Walter's) Latin versifications of Aesop's fables were intended to instruct and entertain

943-405: The left side, is an evocative room with cross vault supported by granite columns, housing tombs and sarcophagi of Roman, Byzantine and Norman ages. People buried here include archbishops Walter Ophamil, the church's founder, and Giovanni Paternò, patron of Antonello Gagini who sculpted the image on his tomb. The Cathedral Treasury contains goblets, vestments, monstrances, a 14th-century breviary and

984-478: The letter U is written as V in inscriptions in Latin. After an apprenticeship under a sculptor, he began his solo career at Naples , where he was one of the team of sculptors finishing the triumphal arch of Castel Nuovo for Alfonso V of Aragon . After the death of Alfonso (1458) he was called to Aix-en-Provence to the court of René d'Anjou , the former and still titular King of Naples, who commissioned him to do

1025-427: The only ones, for Constance, as the only legitimate heir to the throne, was long confined to a monastery due to a prophecy that "her marriage would destroy Sicily". Although he supported Constance to succeed William II, at the request of Pope Clement III , he had to crown Tancred of Lecce king in his cathedral in early January 1190. He died of natural causes early in 1191 and was buried in his rebuilt cathedral. Besides

1066-488: The original appearance of the complex, providing the church of the characteristic but discordant dome, performed according to the designs of Ferdinando Fuga. A second font was added in 1797, by Fillipo and Gaetano Pennino. It is supported by sculptures depicting the Tree of Knowledge and Adam and Eve. A painting of this font by William Leighton Leitch is the subject of a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon , which

1107-430: The passage occurs at different point of the line. The ends of the line mark the positions at the summer and winter solstices; signs of the zodiac show various dates throughout the year. The purpose of the instrument was to standardise the measurement of time and the calendar . The convention in Sicily had been that the (24-hour) day was measured from the moment of sun-rise, which of course meant that no two locations had

1148-496: The ranks until he was a canon of the Cappella Palatina and a candidate for the vacant archiepiscopal throne of 1168, after the deposition of Stephen du Perche . According to Hugo Falcandus , Walter succeeded "less by election than by violent intrusion." Nevertheless, without the support of the queen regent or of the influential Thomas Becket , his faction bribed Pope Alexander III into confirming his election and he

1189-472: The realm approved of the king. The tradition of the Hagia Kyriaka, the chapel of the old Greek Orthodox metropolitans of Sicily, on the grounds of Monreale greatly strengthened the king's cause in an era when tradition was so valued. The archbishop of Palermo was greatly diminished in power by the consecration of the first archbishop of Monreale , in the spring of 1176. Walter began the construction of

1230-511: The restoration of the building. The work began only in 1781, carried out not by Ferdinand but by Palermitan Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia and lasted until the 19th century. The reworkings by Marvuglia were in reality much more invasive and radical than the projects of the Florentine architect, who thought instead of keeping, at least in part, the complex of longitudinal aisles and the original wooden ceiling. The restoration intervened to change

1271-656: The same time and, more importantly, did not have the same time as in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It was also important to know when the Vernal equinox occurred, to provide the correct date for Easter . On the belltowers there were six medieval bells. The instrument could be used for research on the apparent movements of the Sun, including its relative distance from the Earth, measured through

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1312-667: The side walls. The four main sarcophagi, all in porphyry , form a group that also includes that of William I of Sicily in Monreale Cathedral . They "are the very first examples of medieval free-standing secular tombs in the West, and therefore play a unique role within the history of Italian sepulchral art (earlier and later tombs are adjacent to, and dependent on walls)." It is likely that the four sarcophagi of William I (in Monreale), Constance, Henry and Frederick were carved by

1353-404: The size of the floor projected solar disk, and even to compare the results with Ptolemaic and Copernician predictions. The church is composed of different styles, as in the following centuries it underwent various changes. The last was at the end of the 18th century, when it radically remade the interior designed by Ferdinando Fuga . In 1767, the archbishop Filangieri had entrusted to Ferdinand

1394-448: The square. The first column on the left belonged to the original basilica and the subsequent mosque, as evidenced by the Qur'an verse carved on it. The carved portal of this entrance was executed between 1426 and 1430 by Antonio Gambara , while the magnificent wooden leaves are by Francesco Miranda (1432). The mosaic portraying the Madonna is from the 13th century, while the two monuments on

1435-520: The walls, works of the early 18th century, represent the Bourbon king Charles III and Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia , both of whom were crowned here (the latter with his first wife, Anne Marie d'Orléans , in December 1713). The area of the apse, enclosed by the turrets and grandly decorated on the external walls, is part of the original 12th-century building, while the more modern part of the church

1476-564: The young William II. Francesco Laurana Francesco Laurana , also known as Francesco de la Vrana ( Croatian : Frane Vranjanin ; c. 1430 – before 12 March 1502) was a Dalmatian sculptor and medallist . He is considered both a Croatian and an Italian sculptor. Though born in the territory of the Republic of Venice , he spent his mature career at the other end of Italy, moving between Naples and Sicily , and Urbino , and finally in southern France, where he died. He

1517-461: Was consecrated in the Cathedral of Palermo on 28 September. He received distinctly double-edged congratulations from Peter of Blois, who refers in a letter to his "humble birth". Walter was a constant companion of the court of William II , whose tutor he had been. He accompanied William to Taranto to await his Byzantine bride and, failing that, he crowned Joanna , daughter of Henry II of England , as queen consort on 13 February 1177. In 1174,

1558-405: Was destroyed and the sculptures moved to different parts of the basilica. Also by Fuga are the great dome emerging from the main body of the building, and the smaller domes covering the aisles' ceilings. The western entrance is on the current Via Matteo Bonello, and has the appearance set in the 14th and 15th centuries. It is flanked by two towers and has a Gothic portal surmounted by a niche with

1599-456: Was long thought to be an Englishman ("Walter of the Mill") but this interpretation is now rejected in favour of ophamilius referring to Walter as William II 's protofamiliaris , the senior confidant of the king in his royal household, the familiaris regis . Walter's first appearance in the historical record is at court as the Latin tutor of the children of William I in 1160. He rose through

1640-400: Was one of the more significant and complex sculptors of the 15th century – complex because of his activities within varying cultural circles and his exposure to differing influences. His best works evolved in the workshop tradition in collaboration with other artists. His portrait busts reveal a creative individuality that was seen as particularly fascinating in the late 19th century. Though it

1681-411: Was published posthumously in 1840. In the right aisle, in the first and second chapel communicating with one another, are the monumental tombs of King Roger II , his daughter Queen Constance I of Sicily , her husband Emperor Henry VI , and their son Emperor Frederick II , as well as the burials of Frederick's first wife Constance of Aragon and his great-great-grandson William II, Duke of Athens on

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