May 13, 2023

May 13, 2023

This morning we met our driver and local guide to begin our exploration of Palermo. We started in one of the oldest sections of the city. We walked through the old city gate, Porta Nuovo. This enormous sixteenth century stone archway is decorated with Turkish soldiers with severed arms. They were carved to celebrate the Battle of Lepanto where the forces of the Christian West finally defeated the Ottoman Turks, who up to that point had seemed invincible. This 1583 sea battle was the last great one fought with rowing vessels.

Next-door is the Royal Palace. This fortress-like structure was built by the Normans atop the Arab Alcazar. It is now used by the Sicilian Regional Congress. We start our tour with a special exhibition by the modern artist Omar Hassan. The artwork I liked best was one that resembles a fireworks display. We saw a video of how he painted it, punching the canvas with boxing gloves dipped in paint!

Our next stop is the highlight, the Palatine Chapel, which was the private church of the Norman King. Built in the 12th century, it glows with the highly reflective gold mosaics covering the nave and central apse. The Normans must have imported Greek Byzantine artists to decorate their Romanesque basilica. The central apse has a large figure of Jesus. This is what we should have seen in the Cefalu Basilica yesterday.

The nave is decorated with mosaics that retell the Bible stories for the illiterate masses. My brother-in-law and I have nice chuckles about how the artists depicted some of the events, especially those of creation in Genesis. The wooden ceiling resembles ones we have seen in Arabic palaces indicating Muslim craftsmen must have done much of the construction.

Today is Saturday and the Regional Assembly is not in session, so we have the opportunity to tour the royal apartments on the upper floors. The decorations are in a wide variety of styles. King Roger's Room dates to the Middle Ages. Another is painted in a neo-Roman style imitating the decoration found during excavation of Pompeii.

From the Norman Palace, we walked through a garden to the Cathedral of Palermo. A wedding is going on inside so we cannot enter.

Instead we walked through the Capo Market and had some street food for lunch, all fried. It included calamari, chickpea pancakes and the Arabic-derived Arancini rice balls. I washed it down with a Messina Beer.

Our next stop was Palermo’s most iconic location, the Quattro Canti, a major intersection where each of the four corners has a matched facade. Each floor of each end has related statuary, including four Spanish kings, four seasons and four saints.

Next door is the Pretoria Fountain. This has the nickname of the Fountain of Shame because of its decorative nude statues sited just below a Dominican convent. It was brought in pieces from Florence and reassembled.

We then drove up Montepellegrino Mountain overlooking the city to a great overview point. We continued on to the Sanctuary of Santa Rosalia. This shrine is inside a cave on the mountain top.

Afterwards we drove out of the city to a plateau five miles southwest to visit the Cathedral of Monreale. This Norman church is a larger version of the Palatine Chapel we saw this morning. It also is filled with gold mosaics. Being substantially larger with few windows it is much dimmer. The development of the Gothic style with larger windows was just starting in northern Europe.

 

For dinner we walked a mile south to a rooftop restaurant for dinner. The ominous clouds made us think we might get rained out. Fortunately it only spit a few dusty drops. We had a Tonnarelli pasta dinner and then stopped for gelato on the walk back.