Cappella Palatina Audio Guide

Cappella Palatina: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Cappella Palatina

   Welcome to the Cappella Palatina, the royal chapel of the Norman Palace in the historic center of Palermo, Sicily. The palace stands on Piazza del Parlamento, and the chapel sits on its first floor, tucked inside the palace complex rather than standing alone as a church on a street corner. That placement tells you something right away: this was a king's private space, built at the heart of his home. The chapel is small. It is a three-aisled basilica with three apses, roughly 33 meters long and 13 meters wide. Yet it holds a remarkable mixture of Byzantine, Norman, and Fatimid architectural styles, which reflects the tricultural world of twelfth-century Sicily after Roger the First and Robert Guiscard conquered the island. Today it belongs to the UNESCO World Heritage property known as Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale, inscribed in 2015. Over the next few minutes we will look at the king who commissioned it, the gold mosaics that cover its walls, and the extraordinary painted wooden ceiling above your head. Take a breath before you step in, because the first impression is something you will not forget.

2. 02

   A King's Statement in Gold

   The man behind all this was Roger the Second of Sicily, who lived from 1095 to 1154. The chapel was built as part of the Norman Palace in the early 1130s, and it was dedicated to Saint Peter. Accounts of the exact dates differ a little. Some place construction between 1130 and 1132, while others stretch the building work from 1129 to 1143. Consecration is recorded in 1140. What matters is that this was a project of the king's first years on the throne. The chapel was a palatine church, which means it belonged directly to the royal household and stood outside the ordinary church authority of the Archdiocese of Palermo. It served as the private chapel of the kings and, later, the viceroys of Sicily. European historians read the design as a message. Roger the Second made the throne room and the chapel equal in the main part of the building, and they see this as a signal to the papacy and to other European rulers that he intended to stay in Sicily and that nothing could be done about it. Think of it as a sermon in architecture, delivered to rivals who never had to step inside to understand it.

3. 03

   The Mosaics That Took Half a Century

   Now lift your eyes. The chapel is covered in gold mosaic made by Byzantine craftsmen. High in the dome, a majestic Christ Pantocrator presides, surrounded by angels and archangels. Around you, countless tiny gold tesserae seem to hold the light and hand it back. The work was not finished in a single reign. The decoration stretched over about 50 years. Roger the Second's era brought the classic Byzantine imagery, much like the cathedral at Cefalù. His successor, William the First, is credited with the mosaics of the central nave, the cycle of Genesis. William the Second, the builder of Monreale Cathedral, is credited with the side aisles. There, the mosaic technique begins to tell stories of events and history, not only sacred icons. The Russian architect Alexander Pomerantsev took this wealth of images seriously. He produced drawings of 172 mosaic scenes, together with extensive documentation of the carved and painted wooden ceiling, and the work earned him the title of academician of architecture in 1887. Look down as well. The floor is a mosaic of repeating patterns, with an especially rich geometric design at the foot of the dome, clearly Byzantine in inspiration.

4. 04

   Columns, Ceiling and a Cultural Puzzle

   The chapel's three aisles are separated by 10 columns, five on each side, made of Egyptian granite. Above the nave stretches the painted wooden ceiling, one of the chapel's great marvels. It is built with muqarnas, the honeycomb-like carved forms usually associated with Islamic architecture. The Russian architect Pomerantsev documented it carefully, and modern scholars have studied its geometry and construction. Where did this ceiling style come from? Scholars have offered several answers. Some point to similarities with Zirid architectural fragments from the Qal'a of the Beni Hammad in Algeria, and to muqarnas in Tunisia, as evidence of North African roots. Others look to Syria, where the earliest muqarnas date from the twelfth century in Aleppo. Up to a dozen Syrian styles resemble the Sicilian examples. The main problem with that theory is chronology, since the Sicilian muqarnas come about 30 years before their Syrian counterparts. The result is a room where Byzantine, Norman, Fatimid, Arab, and local Sicilian traditions meet under one roof. A famous writer felt it too. Guy de Maupassant visited the chapel and praised it in his travel writing.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   The chapel has had a long life since the Norman kings. By 1549 the historian Tommaso Fazello described the wider palace complex in such a disastrous state that you could glimpse the chapel through the ruins. Mosaics were added to the outer south wall in 1506. In the vestibule, a later mosaic shows the Genius of Palermo in royal robes, with a dog, a serpent, and an eagle at his side, symbols of loyalty, an invader to be crushed, and freedom. An earthquake in September 2002 damaged the chapel. Restoration was completed in July 2008 under the design of Guido Meli and the technical direction of Mario Li Castri, working through the Sicilian regional restoration authorities. Before you leave, try a little game. Find the three aisles, then the dome with its Pantocrator, then the ceiling above the nave. Ask yourself which of the cultures in this chapel you notice first, and which one you only spot on the second or third look. The Norman Palace around you has more rooms waiting, and the chapel is the place where many of them begin to make sense.