The Cathedral of Monreale
When two cultures collide, there is usually an initial period of conflict, followed by the emergence of one faction as the dominating force. But once the dust settles, the cultural result is some fusion of the conflicting entities into a new synthesis. One such synthesis, and a spectacular one, is the Cathedral of Monreale in Palermo, Sicily.
Its story begins with a tale of piracy. Norman knights, returning from pilgrimage to the Holy Land, were lodging with the Lombard prince in Salerno when Saracens attacked, demanding payment of tribute money. The knights, the medieval equivalent of the panzer divisions, charged the besiegers and drove them off. Thus began a complicated relationship between the Lombards, the Byzantine Empire, the Arabs of North Africa, and Norman mercenaries. It ended with the Norman conquest of Sicily and southern Italy and the twelfth-century establishment of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily.
Sicily at the time was inhabited by a mix of Byzantine and Western Christians, Arab converts, and Muslims. In 1172, construction of the cathedral began under King William II, known as William the Good (in contrast to his father, William the Bad). The cathedral’s floor plan leads us to expect a Romanesque church of standard design, with a porch or narthex at the entrance, flanked by twin towers; a broad nave with narrow aisles to either side; an extended choir; a transept without arms; and a hemispherical apse. The nave is marked off by matching columns, presumably topped off with arches and clerestory windows. In other contemporary Romanesque cathedrals, decoration would have been limited to sculpted capitals, maybe a painted ceiling, and possibly a modest fresco of Christ in Majesty over the altar.
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Mary Elizabeth Podles is the retired curator of Renaissance and Baroque art at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the author of A Thousand Words: Reflections on Art and Christianity (St. James Press, 2023). She and her husband Leon, a Touchstone senior editor, have six children and live in Baltimore, Maryland. She is a contributing editor for Touchstone.
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on art from the online archives
33.2—March/April 2020
An Architectural Sign of Mere Christianity by Michael Ward
32.4—July/August 2019
on Single-Mindedness in Durer's Ritter, Tod, und Teufel by Anthony Costello
more from the online archives
33.1—January/February 2020
on a Saint's Charism That Cures Toxic Perfectionism by Colleen Carroll Campbell
37.5—Sept/Oct 2024
An Abandoned Ruling Principle & How to Get It Back by Adam MacLeod
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
