Add a review about Palazzo Normanni

Perhaps the most famous and significant landmark of the city of Palermo in Sicily is the Palazzo dei Normanni, or the Royal Norman Palace with the Palatine Chapel in it. This is the former residence of the kings and vice-kings of Sicily at Piazza Indipendenza, where the Regional Assembly, the Parliament of Sicily, has been located since 1947.

Now Palatine Chapel of Palazzo Normanni is a museum, it hosts a daily mass, Palace, except the main halls of the third floor, access to tourists is limited.
Being a unique monument of the Arab-Norman style, the Palazzo-Normanni personifies the spiritual synthesis of all the cultural origins of the island: Sicilian, European, Byzantine and Arabic about. This is due to the richest history of the conquest of Sicily.

In the 9th century, the Arabs who conquered Palermo erected a palace for the emir in place of the ancient ruins, which in the 11th century belonged to the conquerors - the Norman troops of Robert Guiscard. Guiscard ordered that the Moorish palace be rebuilt and restored to its royal residence. Century later Palazzo Normanni was already a Spanish palace, reconstructed in the spirit of the times.

Palermo. Palazzo Normanni and the Palatine Chapel (ital.)

The quintessence of the cosmopolitanism of the Normans, who preserved the Arabic elements in the Christian temple, is the stunning beauty of the Palatine Chapel, the Palazzo Normanni palace chapel, built in the 12th century. The chapel is lined with mosaics in the Byzantine style, so perfect that they lend themselves adequately to the decoration of the Constantinople churches. Particularly distinguished dome image of Christ Pantokrator.

An amazing fact was discovered by Byzantine historians, having found a profound resemblance to the iconography of the Palatine Chapel with the Mirozhsky Monastery in Pskov, which was painted around the same time period, which indicates a single iconographic school.

Practical Information

Entrance to the Palatine Chapel located on the second floor of the Palazzo Normanni, is run from Liberty Square. The museum has a floating mode of operation, therefore it is recommended to visit the chapel in the morning.

Address: Piazza Indipendenza, 1

Palazzo Normanni, Panorama, Palermo Palazzo -Normanni
Palazzo-Normanni, panorama
Palazzo Normanni, Palermo Palazzo-Normanni
Palazzo Normanni
Interior Palazzo Normanni, Palermo Palazzo-Normanni
Interior Palazzo-Normanni