The Cathedral of Palermo

Introduction by prof. Calogero Bellanca (University La Sapienza, Rome).

The Cathedral of Palermo was rapidly built between 1184 and 1185 by Gualtiero II, a relative of king William II.
It served, at the same time, as a place of worship, a funeral temple for kings (Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II is buried there) and archbishops, a fortress and as a venue for solemn ceremonies.
The interior spaces were adapted for Latin and Byzantine rituals expressing at the same time the Fatimid culture, which was consistently present in Sicily from the X to the XII century.
Through the centuries, the Cathedral was, along with the Royal Palace, the protagonist of the city’s landscape and seat of important ceremonies.
Its architecture registered the changes in taste and artistic sensibility underwent during the different epochs.
In the late eighteenth century the Cathedral was subjected to extended demolitions and the interior space was radically changed.
Nevertheless, it remains an extraordinary testament of the artistic climate that gave birth to it.

The Publishing House Susanna Bellafiore was created in 2013 by the homonymous architect with the intent of republishing and divulging the works of Giuseppe Bellafiore, who was an important reference for academics, scholars, and enthusiasts for the history of Sicilian Art and Architecture.
In an effort to remember with professional reverence her uncle, the editor proposes again his books so that they can continue to be precious instruments of research and analysis for those who are in search of in-depth notions, as well as for those who simply relish to be well informed while travelling through the vestiges of the past.