Prairie Light Images

Travel Adventures: The Martorana in Palermo, Sicily

Palermo was founded over 2700 years ago by the ancient Phoenicians.  It eventually became a part of the Roman Republic and remained associated with Rome and the Roman empire for over a thousand years, eventually becoming a part of the Byzantine Empire.  It fell under Arab rule between 827 to 1071 until it was conquered by the Normans in 1071.  It became the capital city of the Kingdom of Sicily (1130-1816).

The Church of Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio or San Nicolò die Greci, commonly referred to as the Martorana is a beautiful Byzantine church constructed  around 1143.   The name Ammiraglio means Admiral and refers to the founder of the church, George of Antioch, the Greek admiral and first minister of the Norman King Roger II of Sicily.

Between 1193 -94 a Benedictine convent was founded on adjacent property.  The convent was later expanded between 1433-34 and absorbed the church into its construct.  It has since been referred to as La Martorana.

Elements of the original building on both the exterior and interior art work reflect the influence of Moorish culture on Norman Sicily.   Similar to the Palatine Chapel, constructed during the same period, the church bears a mixture of Byzantine and Arabic motifs in its Mosaic and decorative works.

The interior is dominated by Byzantine mosaics on the ceiling, upper walls, domes and pillars.  The main dome in the nave is decorated by the Byzantine image of Christ Pantokrator (Almighty or Lord of Hosts) surrounded by archangels.  The Nave vault depicts the scenes of the Nativity.

 

The nuns modified both the exterior and the artwork within the church between the 16 and 18th centuries.   The latest addition was Baroque in nature and is best exhibited by baroque artwork adjacent to the byzantine ceiling mosaics and the ornately decorated main Altar.  In the 19th century attempts were made to restore the church to its original state, but many elements of baroque art still remain.  While historically interesting to see the baroque art on the ceiling adjacent to the Byzantine mosaics, the baroque paintings add very little to the church, in my opinion.

If you would like to see more of my photographs from Palermo and the Martorana, you can see them on my website here.  If you enjoyed this article you might wish to sign up for my free monthly newsletter here.  Finally, if you have any comments about this article or your travels in Palermo, please feel free to add to the comments below.

Posted on Tuesday, November 29th, 2011 at 9:31 pm. Filed under: Travel Photography Tags: byzantine, Church, Italy, Martorana, Mediterranean, Palermo, Travel photography RSS 2.0 feed.