Monreale
Monreale
Monreale is a small city in the
province of Palermo, in Sicily Italy. It has about 30 000 inhabitants and is
located 20 km south from Palermo. It is on mountains and has a marvelous city
view over the capital, and it is also famous for its cathedral which comes from
the 1200s.
taxi drivers
always travel in pairs
mobile grocer
street vendor
cathedral entrance
side entrance to the cathedral
Two large basilicas are among the highpoints of this Sicilo-Byzantine flowering: the cathedral of Cefalů (c. 1148) and the church of Monreale, the last of the mosaic churches of Sicily (c. 1180–90).
Demus has pointed out the extraordinary homogeneity of style and technique in the Monreale mosaics, which constitute the largest decoration of this kind in Italy. He has also shown that the Monreale mosaics are not executed in the refined and softly curved style that dominates in Cappella Palatina and at Cefalů. Monreale is infused with a more agitated and expressive style which, however, has nothing local or provincial about it. It was the late Comnenian style of Constantinople which had then reached Sicily—a testimony to the unbroken artistic contact that existed at this time between the Norman court and Byzantium.
a Comnenian style mosaic
More Photos of Comnenian Mosaics
the Norman tower of the cathedral
