UMBRIA, TUSCANY AND BEYOND - AN ITALIAN TRAVELOGUE

SICILY'S ARAB-NORMAN HERITAGE I've recently had the opportunity to visit Sicily again and decided to visit it's capital, Palermo. The Norman castle (Castello dei Normanii) has been on my bucket list for ages and I knew it wouldn't disappoint. For me, Sicily more than most places I've visited in Italy, somehow manages to condense its colourful multicultural history into many of its important buildings. The Normans came to Sicily in 1071 and Count Roger (King Roger I), the conqueror of Sicily who would put it back on a Christian and westernised footing after 260 years of Arabic domination, chose to live in Palermo in a former arabic fortified palace on a high point above the port. A rebuild would be in the Norman "keep" style and one of the original four towers survives through to the present day with some of the interiors developed by Roger's immediate successors.

The Capella Palatina - the Palatine Chapel - was commissioned by King Roger II in 1129 and dedicated to St Peter in 1140. The interior decoration is truly amazing and combines latin, Byzantine and arabic elements to produce a jewel like, intimate space which takes the breath away today as it must have done at the time of its completion. Recycled classical columns help support the infrastructure of the chapel. Byzantine mosaic narratives cover the walls - mainly scenes from the Old and New Testaments - together with standing figures of various saints. All is overseen by the figure of Christ as pantocrator in the sanctuary apse, offering his blessing to the assembled congregation. Combined with these christian elements is a carved wooden hand-painted roof construction which is entirely arabic in origin - a "murquanas" of honeycomb vaulted form characteristic of vernacular buildings of the Abbasid Empire.

This Royal chapel today represents a wonderful synthesis of the cultural elements that characterised 12th century Palermo. Anyone with a smidgeon of interest in early mediveal architecture should make sure they travel to Sicily to see this amazing and wonderful interior.