Cattedrale di Palermo

241 BC, Sicily was conquered by the Romans who replaced the Greeks by making Zeus, Jupiter, and so on for the other gods of Olympus. For Catone the Censor the island was “the granary of Rome“. Sicily alone exported about 3 million quintals per year to the capital. Even today, especially the center of the island, is an endless expanse of grain, as if it were sea, which makes it particularly characteristic landscape: deep green in winter and spring, and blinding yellow in the summer months.

The Cathedral of Palermo, a few hundred meters beyond the Norman Palace (seat of temporal power during the millennial history of Palermo) is an example of this mixture. Its origin is lost in the mists of time and its current appearance is the result of 3000 years of renovations, whose principle perhaps dates back to a Phoenician place of worship (eighth century BC). Superbly Arab-Norman in appearance on the outside, it changes its face completely after the entrance door, as if an invisible time machine took us to another era, Aragonese, Renaissance, Art Nouveau. The Cathedral houses the tombs of two of the greatest men of all time, Kings of Sicily: Roger II the Norman and Frederick II of Swabia, the Stupor Mundi. A little further on you can see the dome of the church of San Salvatore (XI century) from whose loggia you can enjoy an extraordinary view of the city.

(photo)Palermo, Cathedral, portal and façade on the south side from the square, 1865-1870