Feb 17th: Monreale

Monreale is the name of both the town and the cathedral, located on a hill 5 miles from Palermo, but a world away from the chaos of the big city. It’s an oasis of tranquillity. The police were even moving unauthorised car parkers, an impossible and unattempted task in Palermo itself.

The views over Palermo are extensive, this one taken from a street near the cathedral.

The cathedral was built in the 12^th century by William ii of Normandy. It has Arab and Greek features, so doesn’t look quite like the standard UK Norman cathedral. We don’t have those tall palm trees either.

But it’s the interior of the cathedral that is unique: it is the best collection of mosaics in the world, all 6,400 square metres of it (69,000 square feet). They used 2.2 tonnes of gold. Let’s step inside.

Initially your eye is drawn to the golden glow of the altar end. Walking towards it reveals that the whole of the church walls are covered in mosaic scenes from the Bible, and the floor is in intricate mosaic patterns.

Using the camera zoom for a closer view of the Christ figure above the altar, the richness of the image and the quality is outstanding.

Jesus and the Saints claim the altar end, with the rest of the church containing about 130 mosaic scenes from the Old and New Testaments. This is an example. It must be Adam and Eve in the upper illustration- I’d recognise those fig leaves anywhere.

Example no2 is of Noah & helpers sending the animals out of the ark at the end of the flood. Light from the windows is unfortunately causing the glow on the top.

There were later additions to the cathedral in the form of a baroque chapel, more ornate than anything we’d previously seen anywhere and quite overpowering. I wouldn’t fancy the living room done out like this.

Again, it’s the detail that’s most impressive; the next photo shows a curtain carved out of marble- how is it possible to chisel these swirls without breaking the marble?

We could have spent longer in the cathedral and there were areas we didn’t visit, but it closed for lunch at 12.30pm (until 3.30pm). However, it was maybe for the best because you can only take in so much when surrounded by this amount of magnificence. We’ll have to return some other time.  Jaw dropping stuff!