Palermo's Churches

Coming from the mighty cathedral, the castles, palaces and parks of Palermo, we continued with some interesting churches. You just can't evade churches in Italy! ;)

The Arab-Norman church San Cataldo from the 12th century is one of the last built in Arab-Norman style in Sicily. There was a Kufi (ornamental Arab) inscription on its upper rim, and the cupola was painted red only later on. The inside is rather simple, yet the church remains popular for ceremonies.

The lavishly decorated church La Martorana is also from the 12th century, but has baroque decorations inside. Its golden and white motives with round ornaments leave no blank space (this is called horror vacui, fear of the blank).

The golden cupola clearly follows Byzantine style, with Christ at the centre, the four evangelists around him and the apostles below. Still today, masses in the Byzantine ritus are held in this church.

This mosaic depicts the medieval ideal (or ideology) of power: Christ crowning the Norman king Roger II of Sicily (written in Greek Rogerios Rex)

On this baroque marble slate you can see inside flowery decorations the Latin phrase "Macula non est in te" - "There is no fault in you." Thanks for telling me ;)

My next post will continue with this kind of architecture ... there is just so much!

Photo gallery