Three churches in Palermo

 

Well, full disclosure here, it was in fact one church, one very large church and then one cathedral - a little outside Palermo - which we visited within 24 hours, and the first two within half an hour of each other. And the first two we completely stumbled on while having a beer in a cafe and saying "what's that funny-looking dome?"

Here's the first church, though without the crucifix, you'd be hard-pressed to tell it was a church as we know it:

It was absolutely stunning in it's simplicity and it looks an awful lot like a mosque. Which is no coincidence. 

It is the Chiesa de San Cataldo and was built in the 12th century, by Norman rulers of Sicily, which island they had captured less than a century earlier and which was already a heady mix of Christian, Islamic and earlier cultures. There was not any wholesale ejection of residents, even though the previous rulers were overthrown, and the artisans were left alone and new styles of building and art were quite syncretic, creating a style referred to as Arab-Norman.

The impact of walking into this church by accident was quite overpowering. It has balance, clarity, beauty and a level of what you might call asceticism, if it weren't for these lovely mosaic floors:

The next church is literally across the square. It is called Chiesa e Monastero di Santa Caterina d'Alessandria

This is what it looks like inside:

It is in the highest possible Baroque style, and literally every square inch of its interior - floor, ceiling and walls - is covered in the most extravagant decoration. There are puttis writhing overhead flanking the Madonna; there are huge side chapels in multicolour marble inlay with statues bursting out of the walls. Beneath your feet the floor sings with marble mosaic and patterning (but it is at least flat). You may have twigged that high baroque is not my favourite style. It feels like the most over-sweetened chocolate cake you could have, leaving you with a sugar rush and a migraine. In order to not see an image you would literally have to shut your eyes. Prayer might be possible but I defy anyone to go for quiet contemplation.

Here is the third church. It is actually the Arab-Norman style cathedral of Monreale, a couple of miles up the hills outside Palermo. I took a short video:

The cathedral at Monreale

It is a huge building and, as you'll see in the video, is decorated over most of its higher surfaces in wonderful, clear, gold-background mosaics. Here are some:

I particularly like the final one which is - and you may not have guessed this - God resting on the seventh day ("Nice cup o' tea and a biscuit")

The whole building is glorious and beautiful, and I loved that you could read the walls like a book. It has so much of the feeling of the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, where the stories are all told in stained glass.

And, ex Christian and firm non-believer though I am, it did make you think about all the prayers and emotions that had risen to heaven under the roofs of those three buildings. When disaster or triumph occurs, people go to these buildings, to plead or to thank. 

And though I understand that some of this glory was made to reflect on the makers as well as the Maker, there is quite enough glory left to make you love them. And I'd highly recommend seeing them in the flesh and stone.