10. Monreale and Palermo (updated)

Friday, Oct. 18th.  This morning we are headed to Monreale which is about 9 miles south of Palermo on the slope of Monte Caputo and overlooking a valley called "La Conca d'oro" (The Golden Shell) famed for its olive, orange and almond trees.  Up until the Arab invasion, the bishop of Palermo had his cathedral in the city.  The Arabs forced him to move out of the city and Monreale is where he moved to.  After the Normans conquered Sicily, King William II had a new cathedral built in Monreale in 1174.  The cathedral was built in the Norman style which is fairly simple as you can see in this photo.

The cathedral has ornate bronze doors dating from 1185 but being merely tourists we enter via the side door.  Here there are two statues, one showing King William II offering his cathedral to the Blessed Mother.  The other is a statute of the Blessed Mother.  Here they are.

What this cathedral is famous for is the mosaics that cover the interior walls of the church.  Here is a video I shot of the interior.

 Here is a photo of the main altar and some of the mosaics.

And here is a closer view of the Pantocrator mosaic that is over the altar.

These mosaics cover all of the interior of the church.  At the time that this church was built very few people could read so these mosaics were used to portray scenes from the bible for the education of the masses.  This first scene show Jesus curing the cripple man.

This next scene shows Jesus driving the money changers out of the temple.

This one shows Jesus walking on the water.

This photo gives you an idea of how well covered the walls were with these mosaics.



This mosaic shows a number of the saints surrounding the Blessed Mother and baby Jesus.

This is the sarcophagus of King William I, known as William the Bad.

And this is the sarcophagus of King William II, know as William the Good.

This is one of the side altars.

To the side of the cathedral is a cloister that King William II had build for Benedictine monks.  Here is a photo of the central garden of the cloister.

After touring the cathedral we took a short walk through a section of the old town.  Here is a photo of one of the produce stands that the local people were buying from.

And here is the fish market.

That's the head of a swordfish on display as they were selling swordfish steaks.  I've seen swordfish a lot on the restaurant menus.  We then went to lunch at a local restaurant that was carved out of the rock.  Here is a photo.

One thing we are getting to do a lot of on this tour is eat.  As you would expect, the menus are very heavy on seafood and everything I've had has been great.  Pat is even eating eggplant.

We then drove back to Palermo and visited the Capella Palatina, Palatine Chapel, which is located in the Palazza Reale which was the home of the Norman kings of Sicily.  The present chapel was built in 1132 by King Gregory II and sits on top of an older chapel that was built in 1080 and now is the crypt.  This chapel is famed for its mosaics which were as elegant as those in Monreale but on a smaller scale.  Here are a couple of samples.

And here is the altar.

We then walked through Palermo admiring the buildings.  Here is a photo of a large circular fountain that is know locally as the Fountain of Shame.

It is called that as it has a large number of statues depicting Greek gods and goddesses mostly in various states of undress.  That building right behind it is a cloister for nuns and they had to look out at this fountain.