We head out to the Royal Palace, Palazzo decRei Normani. First this was a Roman first, then a Norman palace (the blind arches are key), and then a Spanish palace and later a Bourbon palace. Now it is the site of the Sicilian Parliament.
After Roger, this became a Norman “county”. When the Spanish came they kept the beautiful mosaics outside the chapel, glittering with gold and medallions of all the saints. Over the door is a mosaic of the king, with a shield of Ferdinand and his wife Carolina who was the brains, as Ferdinand was simple and unengaged. This is the largest royal palace in Europe by volume. Lord Nelson got the King and Queen here safely as they were exiled, and the King gave him a duchy at Mt. Etna.
Inside are the mosaics dating from 1132-1143, built during the lifetime of Roger II,ma bit of a Renaussance man during the Medieval period. His son was William I, also very educated. Roger set up a consititution, and the kingdom incvouded Tunisia, Libra, southern Italy, and more. 95% of this is original, luckily no earthquake or fire has ever destroyed this. The lower mosaics were done by tecArabs (Fatamids) and the ceiling. In between, the mosaics we done by Byzantine artists. The soanted side wall shows the Koranic virgins. This is a Catholic chapel but also has Arabic writing in various locations. The Chapel was consecrated to St. Peterin 1143. The floors have typical Byzantine circles and 8-pointed Islamic stars. The pointed arches are of the Arabic-Norman style. The rear of the chapel has the English lions, below Jesus flanked by Stu. Petervand Zoaul. By the altar is Jesus Pantocrator, and below him is Mary. Two zjesus’ left is Mary being impregnated by he Holy Spirit coming along a line from the hand of god. The faces of he mosaics are quite three-dimensional, unlikecearlier mosaics. There is both Greek and Latin on the walls. Around the 8-pointed stars is elegant Arabic writing. Our guide, Jackie, has written the definitive book on Medieval women, who were very important in its history. Roger’s constitution was the first in history to outlaw rape, which was not a felony in Italy until 1996.the mosaics below the ceiling civervtye seven days of creatin and below that the stories of Noah, on the other side is the continuation of the Creation with the expulsion through Jacob wrestlnigvtyecangel, and down below the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, Ishmael, etc. the gold of the mosaics is gold from Africa, this was a rich area, the annual tax revenues of just Palermo exceeded the entire tax revenues of England. Unique in the reign of Roger was that he kept Byzantine Christians, Arabs Jews together and employed in high positions. The Normans were a minority here and they needed the other groups to work with them; at that time this was the richest city in the world. At the same time the Crusades were underway creating lots of tension which they managed to work around. Roger did not ever send a group on crusade but they allowed the crusaders to use the main ports here (1140s). Outside the exit from the chapel is a beautiful silk chasuble embroidered with gold, as the Arabs brought mulberries and silk here.
Outside in the broad open hall of the courtyard was a stone inscription in four languages each with the date represented in its own calendar: Norman, Arabic, Jewish, and Byzantine. We enter the exhibition of artifacts (no photos allowed but I got a few descriptions) which presented coins, scrolls, jewelry, and more from this era.
The Arabs had settled the old Phoenician peninsula, and out the rivers underground to create more land, Palermo was the second largest city in Europe. The Muslims fought the Chinese in the East, and some of the captives they took knew how the Blake paper, this they brought paper here. The design of this and other summer palaces were designed the move the air through the building, based on a Muslim designs from Zivanovic. Zisa is one example of this. We see a projection of the constitution mentioned earlier, and the magnificent mantle of Roger embroidered in gold on red, with only Arabic inscription, yet showing the lion of the Normans conquering the camel of the Arabs.therecare large manuscripts of paper stitched together with metal seals.
We walk a short distance to the Cathedral, built after the palace, by William II. We see the blind filled in arches in a Norman style, later a 15th century frontage was added along with towers, and then in the 18th cen5ury a large dome was put on top and so,e smaller domes over the aisles, many styles in one place. This was built on the site of a mosque. It was dedicated to a pious young woman named Rosalia, who had gone t9 live in the mountains. During a plague, they brought he bones down from the mountain, and the plague was cured. In a chapel next to the altar are relics encased in a magnificent silver reliquary. In a side chapel is the tomb of Fr. Giuseppe Puglisus, a local priest who denounced the Mafia, who was assassinated. during the big Mafia period, the Catholic Church was still allied with the Mafia, as they were helping the church in various ways. It took a non-Italian Pope at Agrigento to denounce the Mafia, which was John Paul II. The Church to get involved in politics they had to work with the Christian Democrats, but the Christian Democrats were in cahoots with the Mafia.
We come to the Four Corners, the crossing of via Emmanuel Victoria and vita Maqueda. The Spanish. It off the corpus corners and out up large curved markers with a patron saint for each quarter, each quarter also has its own market, and people generally be en married within their quarters. We come to a piazza in front of the city hall, with a huge renaissance fountain, but the statues are also rather bad, weird caricatures of famous statues. The Renaissance kind of passed by Sicily as there was bi middle class here to buy the paintings and sculptures and nurture artists. Outside the city hall is a plaque commemorating the vote iforbunificati9 and a constitutional monarchy in 1860, which was 432,720 yes to 647 no, obviously fraudulent, even dictators don’t get those kinds of numbers. For southern Italy, life was much worse after unification, and often the South was in revolt, and so many left for the US and Australia and Brazil. The last king was deposed in 1946 and a republic was formed.
We come through two Norman buildings, one an Arabi-Norman tomb, one a church Santa Maria dell’ Ammiraglio. George of Antioch, minister to William I, built a small chapel and employed some of the same mosaic artists to decorate the interior. The message of a dome is the idea of moving the soul from earth (square and dges) to the octagon, the transition to the perfection of heaven, the spheres. The squintiest h was a transitional corner from the square base to the octagon, which first was done by thecNorman. Later with plaster the transition from square to circle would be easier, with spandrells. This later became a convent, and they busted out the front all which was replaced by a Baroque altar and dome, and they also removed the rear wall so the rear part is decorated in Baroque style. So front Baroque, middle Norma, rear Baroque . We can see along the wall the change in construction on interior walls. In the rear was a gelosia screen behind which the nuns would listen to Mass. in the back of the church is a famous mosaic, showing Roger being crowned by Jesus, not the Pope, similar to Charlemagne, to show his independence.
Continuing on our walking tour, we come to Antica Focacceria San Francesco, a Slow Food place that Douglas likes, and have a lovely lunch on the piazza. They seem to have the whole piazza, with a takeout place on one side and the main restaurant on another side, with a church and a painted building with faux street scenes on the last. Barney had a nice steak and I had a salad with saffron cheese, after a selection of antipasti which included the spleen slider.
Back at the hotel, we rested for a while, and then took off for the afternoon. We walked up to the Opera House and got tickets for the last tour, and then went over to the Archaeological Museum. We saw “The Stone of Palermo,” an Egyptian piece from the Old Kingdom with unique information on the first five dynasties, photos of which I sent to Madeleine. We also saw some of the artifacts from Selinunte,and there was a modern dance ensemble practicing in the same large room where the objects were, which was fun to watch. Back to the opera house for the tour, we see Barbara and Joe who join us. It is the largest in Italy, third largest in Europe after Paris and Vienna. Beautiful wood carved ceiling, red draped boxes five levels high, and lots of gold gives it a luxurious feeling. It seats about 1,300, so smaller than Pris or Vienna by seating but larger overall.
Growing a bit hot and tired, we go to the Piazza Carlo V for a drink … I keep thinking, what a tough job it is to be the person out in front of a restaurant trying to get people to come in. Refreshed, we head out to look for Cambio Cavalier, a place Douglas recommended, but after a lot of wandering we gave up. We decided to head back to the Focacceria and had a nice dinner there, a different salad for me, timbale for Barney, and a caponata antipasto. The church across from us is turning a beautiful golden color as the sun goes down. It is Norman, built 1263 and apparently ended as a rough in 1943, according to the very worn sig on the front. The tympanum is really nice … I wonder if the inside was destroyed in the bombing during the war? Back to the hotel to pack and do some correspondence.
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