Monreale Cathedral

1174

A king dreamed of the Virgin under a carob tree

William II of Sicily began the cathedral in 1174. A legend says he fell asleep under a carob tree while hunting, and the Virgin appeared in a dream and told him to build a church where he lay. Gold coins found in the roots of the tree paid for it. More likely the church was part of a plan of great buildings in competition with the bishop of Palermo, Walter Ophamil.

The mosaics

6,500 square metres of gold glass cover the walls

The main feature inside is the huge area of glass mosaics, 6,500 square metres, executed in the Byzantine style between the late 12th and the mid-13th centuries by both local and Venetian masters. The church is 102 metres long and 40 metres wide, and it is a national monument of Italy.

6,500square metres of glass mosaic

The cloister

The cloister has 216 columns, and no two capitals are alike

The cloister was completed about 1200. It is one of the finest European cloisters for its size and the beauty of its detail. Its pointed arches are supported on pairs of white marble columns, 216 in all, alternately plain and decorated with bands of patterns in gold and color, made of glass tesserae. The marble capitals are each carved with foliage, biblical scenes and allegories, and no two are the same.

The plan

The plan came from models in northern France

The plan of the church is based on models of Clunian origin from northern France. The façade is flanked by two towers, like Cefalù Cathedral, and the large three-apse choir resembles one of the first three-apse churches. On each side of the nave, columns of grey oriental granite support eight pointed arches.

Later

The heart of a king was buried here in 1270

In 1270 the heart of Saint Louis IX, King of France, was buried here. Between 1547 and 1569 a Renaissance portico was added on the northern side, covered by a cross vault and featuring eleven round arches supported by Corinthian columns, and in 1559 most of the internal pavement was added.