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Palermo Cathedral

Palermo Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Palermo, located in Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy. It is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. As an architectural complex, it is characterized by the presence of different styles, due to a long history of additions, alterations and restorations, the last of which occurred in the 18th century.

Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Virgin Mary
Cattedrale metropolitana della Santa Vergine Maria Assunta
Palermo Cathedral
Religion
AffiliationRoman Catholic Church
ProvinceArchdiocese of Palermo
Ecclesiastical or organizational statusCathedral
StatusActive
Location
LocationPalermo, Italy
Geographic coordinates38°06′52″N 13°21′22″E / 38.11444°N 13.35611°E / 38.11444; 13.35611
Architecture
TypeChurch
StyleNorman, Moorish, Gothic, Baroque, Neoclassical
Groundbreaking1185
Completedcompleted in the Middle Ages but with subsequent additions until the eighteenth century
Official name: Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale
TypeCultural
Criteriaii, iv
Designated2015 (39th session)
Reference no.1487
State Party Italy
RegionEurope and North America

History edit

 
The main façade, connected with arcades to the Archbishops' Palace

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 Saracens 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 a basilica plan with three apses, of which only some minor architectural elements survive today.

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, 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.

Overview edit

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 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 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 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 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 sarcophagus of Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen.

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 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 Baroque small side cupolas by Ferdinando Fuga.
 
The famous portico by Antonio Gambara

The Sacrament chapel, at 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 window over the west entrance; you can see one of the two arcades that connect the western façade to the opposite bell tower.

The 1466 Gothic-Catalan style wooden choir and the marble remains of the Gagini's retable (removed during the 18th-century alterations) are also precious, as well as a marble statue of the Madonna with Child by Francesco Laurana and pupils (1469[1]), 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.

 
La S. Vergine con il Bambino inside the cathedral by Antonio Filocamo.

The crypt, accessed from 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 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 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 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 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 the size of the floor projected solar disk, and even to compare the results with Ptolemaic and Copernician predictions.[2]

18th and 19th century renovations edit

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 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 the original appearance of the complex, providing the church of the characteristic but discordant dome, performed according to the designs of Ferdinando Fuga.[3]

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 was published posthumously in 1840.[4]

Royal and Imperial burials edit

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 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)."[5] It is likely that the four sarcophagi of William I (in Monreale), Constance, Henry and Frederick were carved by a local Sicilian workshop from a single Roman column shaft, possibly from the Baths of Caracalla or the Baths of Diocletian in Rome.[5] 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 the De Ceremoniis,[6] four of which now stand in front of the İstanbul Archaeology Museums' main building.[7]

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 the cathedral in 1097.[8] Aside from burials, Vittorio Amedeo II of Savoy and Charles III of Spain were crowned in the cathedral.

The treasure of the cathedral edit

 
Byzantine corona (kamelaukion) of Constance of Aragon, wife of Frederick II king of Germany and Sicily.

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 tiara of Constance of Aragon. Other precious objects, enamels, embroidery and jewelry, are exposed in central message boards such as for example 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.[9]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ The sculpture is commonly known as Madonna Libera Inferni ("free from Hell"). It received this name in 1576, when Pope Gregory XIII gave indulgence for the Purgatory's souls to the altar in which it is placed. The sculpture was intended for the church of Monte San Giuliano in Trapani, but remained here as the Palermitani refused to deprive themselves of such a beautiful art work.
  2. ^ John L. Heilbron, The Sun in the Church, Harvard, 1999.
  3. ^ Enciclopedia universale, pp.32-34.
  4. ^ Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1840). "poetical illustration". Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1841. Fisher, Son & Co. Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1840). "picture". Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1841. Fisher, Son & Co.
  5. ^ a b Rosa Bacile (2017), Romanesque and the Mediterranean: Patterns of Exchange Across the Latin, Greek and Islamic Worlds c.1000-c.1250, Routledge
  6. ^ A. A. Vasiliev (1848). "Imperial Porphyry Sarcophagi in Constantinople" (PDF). Dumbarton Oaks Papers. 4: 1+3–26. doi:10.2307/1291047. JSTOR 1291047.
  7. ^ Roger Pearse (18 December 2013). "More on the tombs of the emperors at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople". Roger Pearse.
  8. ^ ODNB
  9. ^ Enciclopedia universale, p. 45

Sources edit

  • Palermo, in Enciclopedia universale, Rizzoli, Milano 1990.
  • Patrizia Fabbri, Palermo e Monreale, Bonechi, 2005.
  • Sicily and Its Islands, 1993 - Ugo La Rosa Publisher
  • Angiola Maria Romanini; Antonio Cadei (1994). L'architettura medievale in Sicilia: la cattedrale di Palermo (in Italian). Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana.

External links edit

  • Official website

palermo, cathedral, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, februar. This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Palermo Cathedral news newspapers books scholar JSTOR February 2017 Learn how and when to remove this template message Palermo Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Palermo located in Palermo Sicily southern Italy It is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary As an architectural complex it is characterized by the presence of different styles due to a long history of additions alterations and restorations the last of which occurred in the 18th century Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Virgin MaryCattedrale metropolitana della Santa Vergine Maria AssuntaPalermo CathedralReligionAffiliationRoman Catholic ChurchProvinceArchdiocese of PalermoEcclesiastical or organizational statusCathedralStatusActiveLocationLocationPalermo ItalyGeographic coordinates38 06 52 N 13 21 22 E 38 11444 N 13 35611 E 38 11444 13 35611ArchitectureTypeChurchStyleNorman Moorish Gothic Baroque NeoclassicalGroundbreaking1185Completedcompleted in the Middle Ages but with subsequent additions until the eighteenth centuryUNESCO World Heritage SiteOfficial name Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalu and MonrealeTypeCulturalCriteriaii ivDesignated2015 39th session Reference no 1487State Party ItalyRegionEurope and North America Contents 1 History 2 Overview 3 18th and 19th century renovations 4 Royal and Imperial burials 5 The treasure of the cathedral 6 See also 7 References 8 Sources 9 External linksHistory edit nbsp The main facade connected with arcades to the Archbishops PalaceThe 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 Saracens 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 a basilica plan with three apses of which only some minor architectural elements survive today 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 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 Overview editThe 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 a precious 15th century Madonna Two lintelled ogival arcades stepping over the street connect the western facade 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 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 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 Orleans 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 is the left side which has an early 16th century portal by Antonello Gagini The South Western facade looking at the Archbishop Palace dates from the 14th to 15th centuries nbsp The sarcophagus of Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen 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 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 Cefalu nbsp The Baroque small side cupolas by Ferdinando Fuga nbsp The famous portico by Antonio GambaraThe Sacrament chapel at 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 nbsp The window over the west entrance you can see one of the two arcades that connect the western facade to the opposite bell tower The 1466 Gothic Catalan style wooden choir and the marble remains of the Gagini s retable removed during the 18th century alterations are also precious as well as a marble statue of the Madonna with Child by Francesco Laurana and pupils 1469 1 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 nbsp La S Vergine con il Bambino inside the cathedral by Antonio Filocamo The crypt accessed from 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 Paterno patron of Antonello Gagini who sculpted the image on his tomb The Cathedral Treasury contains goblets vestments monstrances a 14th century breviary and 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 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 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 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 the size of the floor projected solar disk and even to compare the results with Ptolemaic and Copernician predictions 2 18th and 19th century renovations editThe 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 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 the original appearance of the complex providing the church of the characteristic but discordant dome performed according to the designs of Ferdinando Fuga 3 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 was published posthumously in 1840 4 nbsp Wikisource has original text related to this article Baptismal Font Cathedral of Palermo a poem by L E L Royal and Imperial burials editIn 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 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 5 It is likely that the four sarcophagi of William I in Monreale Constance Henry and Frederick were carved by a local Sicilian workshop from a single Roman column shaft possibly from the Baths of Caracalla or the Baths of Diocletian in Rome 5 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 the De Ceremoniis 6 four of which now stand in front of the Istanbul Archaeology Museums main building 7 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 the cathedral in 1097 8 Aside from burials Vittorio Amedeo II of Savoy and Charles III of Spain were crowned in the cathedral The treasure of the cathedral edit nbsp Byzantine corona kamelaukion of Constance of Aragon wife of Frederick II king of Germany and Sicily 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 tiara of Constance of Aragon Other precious objects enamels embroidery and jewelry are exposed in central message boards such as for example 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 9 See also editArab Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalu and MonrealeReferences edit The sculpture is commonly known as Madonna Libera Inferni free from Hell It received this name in 1576 when Pope Gregory XIII gave indulgence for the Purgatory s souls to the altar in which it is placed The sculpture was intended for the church of Monte San Giuliano in Trapani but remained here as the Palermitani refused to deprive themselves of such a beautiful art work John L Heilbron The Sun in the Church Harvard 1999 Enciclopedia universale pp 32 34 Landon Letitia Elizabeth 1840 poetical illustration Fisher s Drawing Room Scrap Book 1841 Fisher Son amp Co Landon Letitia Elizabeth 1840 picture Fisher s Drawing Room Scrap Book 1841 Fisher Son amp Co a b Rosa Bacile 2017 Romanesque and the Mediterranean Patterns of Exchange Across the Latin Greek and Islamic Worlds c 1000 c 1250 Routledge A A Vasiliev 1848 Imperial Porphyry Sarcophagi in Constantinople PDF Dumbarton Oaks Papers 4 1 3 26 doi 10 2307 1291047 JSTOR 1291047 Roger Pearse 18 December 2013 More on the tombs of the emperors at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople Roger Pearse ODNB Enciclopedia universale p 45Sources editPalermo in Enciclopedia universale Rizzoli Milano 1990 Patrizia Fabbri Palermo e Monreale Bonechi 2005 Sicily and Its Islands 1993 Ugo La Rosa Publisher Angiola Maria Romanini Antonio Cadei 1994 L architettura medievale in Sicilia la cattedrale di Palermo in Italian Roma Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cattedrale di Palermo External links editOfficial website Paradoxplace Photos of Palermo Cathedral Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Palermo Cathedral amp oldid 1182610854, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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