SICILY | Palermo Cathedral

March 2025. We’re embarking on a train trip to Sicily. We fly from Brussels Airport to Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport with ITA Airways. Then we take an Intercity Notte sleeper train by Trenitalia from Roma Termini Railway Station across Italy to Syracuse. Yes, the train is loaded on a ferry to cross the Strait of Messina. After visiting Syracuse, Catania and Palermo, we return to Rome, and home. With 25,832 km², Sicily is only 20% smaller than Belgium (30,689 km²). Quite a lot in four days.

After spending the night and checking out at NH Palermo, we started exploring Palermo. We had quite a lot of time, as our train was scheduled for 8.25 PM. So we walked around, for sure. But we also went inside some sites.

Firstly, the Primatial Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of the Holy Virgin Mary of the Assumption. Or, easier, the Palermo Cathedral.

Primatial Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of the Holy Virgin Mary of the Assumption

Palermo Cathedral is the principal church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Palermo. It is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The cathedral’s architectural complexity reflects a long history of additions, modifications, and restorations, the most recent of which took place in the 18th century.

The cathedral was founded in 1185 by Walter Ophamil, the Norman Archbishop of Palermo and minister to King William II. It was constructed on the site of an earlier Byzantine basilica, which, according to historical accounts, was established by Pope Gregory I and later converted into a mosque by the Arabs following their conquest of Palermo in the 9th century. Ophamil is interred in a sarcophagus in the church’s crypt. The original medieval structure followed a basilica plan with three apses.

The upper sections of the corner towers were completed between the 14th and 15th centuries, while the southern porch was added during the early Renaissance. The present Neoclassical appearance is the result of extensive renovations carried out between 1781 and 1801 under the direction of Ferdinando Fuga and Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia.

During this period, Antonello Gagini’s grand retable, adorned with statues, friezes, and reliefs, was dismantled, with its sculptures relocated to various parts of the basilica. Fuga also designed the large dome rising from the cathedral’s central structure, along with the smaller domes covering the ceilings of the aisles.

The edifice

The western entrance, located on Via Matteo Bonello, retains the appearance it acquired in the 14th and 15th centuries. It is flanked by two towers and features a Gothic portal topped by a niche containing a valuable 15th-century Madonna. Two pointed ogival arcades, spanning the street, connect the western façade to the adjacent bell tower, which is part of the Archbishops’ Palace, now housing the Museo Diocesano. The bell tower has a square shape, with its upper section decorated by small arcades and a series of minor belfries.

The cathedral’s southern side features turrets and a spacious portico, now serving as the main entrance. Built in the Gothic-Catalan style around 1465, the portico has three arcades opening onto the square. The first column on the left is a remnant of the original basilica and the later mosque, as evidenced by a Qur’anic inscription carved into its surface.

The intricately carved portal was executed between 1426 and 1430 by Antonio Gambara, while the grand wooden doors were crafted by Francesco Miranda in 1432. The mosaic of the Madonna dates from the 13th century. The two monuments adorning the walls, created in the early 18th century, depict Charles III of Spain and Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia, both of whom were crowned in this cathedral—Victor Amadeus II alongside his first wife, Anne Marie d’Orléans, in December 1713.

The apse, framed by turrets and richly decorated external walls, belongs to the original 12th-century structure. The left side of the cathedral, built in a more recent period, includes a 16th-century portal by Antonello Gagini. The southwestern façade, facing the Archbishop’s Palace, dates from the 14th and 15th centuries.

Interior

The cathedral’s interior follows a Latin cross plan, comprising a nave and two aisles separated by pilasters. The first two chapels on the right aisle contain the tombs of emperors and royalty, relocated here in the 18th century.

Among them are the remains of Emperor Henry VI, his son Frederick II, Peter II of Sicily and William II, Duke of Athens. A Roman sarcophagus serves as the tomb of Constance of Aragon, Frederick II’s wife. Beneath mosaic baldachins rest the tombs of Roger II, the first King of Sicily, and his daughter Constance. These two tombs were originally located in the transept of Cefalù Cathedral.

The Sacrament Chapel, at the end of the left aisle, is adorned with precious stones and lapis lazuli. To the right of the presbytery is the Chapel of Saint Rosalia, patron saint of Palermo, enclosed by an elaborate bronze gate. It contains her relics and a 17th-century silver urn, an object of great veneration.

Other noteworthy features include the 1466 Gothic-Catalan style wooden choir, remnants of Gagini’s dismantled retable, a marble ‘Madonna and Child‘ by Francesco Laurana and his pupils (1469), a 13th-century polychrome ‘Crucifix‘ by Manfredi Chiaramonte, and a holy water stoup sculpted by Domenico Gagini.

The ‘Madonna della Scala‘ by Antonello Gagini is positioned on the high altar of the new sacristy. The Relics Chapel houses the relics of Saint Christina, Saint Ninfa, Saint Cosma, Saint Agatha, and Saint Mamilianus, Palermo’s first patron saint.

The crypt, accessed from the left side, is an evocative space with cross vaults supported by granite columns. It contains tombs and sarcophagi from Roman, Byzantine, and Norman periods, including the tombs of Archbishop Walter Ophamil and Giovanni Paternò, whose tomb sculpture was created by Antonello Gagini.

The Cathedral Treasury holds goblets, vestments, monstrances, a 14th-century breviary, and the renowned Crown of Constance of Sicily, a golden tiara discovered in her tomb in 1491.

Meridian and astronomical significance

The cathedral features a meridian, an early type of heliometer (solar observatory), installed in 1801 by the astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, director of the Palermo Observatory and discoverer of the asteroid Ceres.

A small hole in one of the minor domes serves as a pinhole camera, projecting an image of the sun onto the floor, where a bronze line (la meridiana) runs precisely north to south. At solar noon, the sun’s image crosses this line, with its position varying throughout the year.

The solstices and zodiac signs are marked along the line, allowing for precise time measurement. The meridian was used to standardise timekeeping in Sicily, where different locations had previously used varying sunrise-based measurements, and to determine the date of Easter. The cathedral’s belltowers once housed six medieval bells.

18th and 19th-century renovations

Over the centuries, the cathedral underwent numerous alterations, the most extensive of which took place at the end of the 18th century, radically transforming the interior under the direction of Ferdinando Fuga. In 1767, Archbishop Filangieri commissioned the restoration, but work only began in 1781 under the supervision of Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia, lasting into the 19th century.

Marvuglia’s modifications were more drastic than those originally envisioned by Fuga, who had planned to retain the longitudinal aisles and original wooden ceiling. Instead, Marvuglia introduced the large dome, which, although characteristic of the period, stands in contrast to the earlier architecture.

In 1797, sculptors Filippo and Gaetano Pennino created a second baptismal font, supported by sculptures depicting the ‘Tree of Knowledge‘ and ‘Adam and Eve‘. A painting of this font by William Leighton Leitch inspired a poetic illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon, published posthumously in 1840.

Royal and imperial burials

In the right aisle, the first and second interconnected chapels house the monumental tombs of King Roger II, Queen Constance I of Sicily, Emperor Henry VI, Emperor Frederick II, and Constance of Aragon.

The porphyry sarcophagi in this group also include that of William I of Sicily, located in Monreale Cathedral.

These tombs are among the earliest examples of free-standing medieval secular burials in Western Europe, crafted from a single Roman column shaft, possibly sourced from the Baths of Caracalla or Baths of Diocletian in Rome. Their design was influenced by the porphyry sarcophagi of late Roman emperors in Constantinople.

Odo of Bayeux, half-brother of William the Conqueror, was buried in the cathedral in 1097. Vittorio Amedeo II of Savoy and Charles III of Spain were crowned here.

A visit

The ‘church part of the cathedral’ is free to visit. For the royal tombs, the treasury and the Diocesan Museum in and of the Archbishop’s Palace, you need a ticket. We did not include the roofs in our tour.

Paying to visit these three sections of the palace is worth it. It’s always nice to see a crown, and the museum is quite interesting.

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SICILY | Palermo Cathedral