EJ · Monreale Tour

Monreale is a pleasant town and as you wander around you often get great views over Palermo, the coast and the fertile Conca d’Oro valley with its groves of olive, orange and almond trees. Its name derives from the derivation Monte Reale (mountain of the kings). It is just outside of Palermo and a medieval town and bishop’s see since 1183. The town was born with the Norman domination of the island around the eleventh century and it was the place where the Norman rulers withdrew to rest after the efforts of the wars and the government of the Kingdom. The most evocative place is definitively the Norman-Byzantine Cathedral and it has been named World Heritage Site by Unesco. It is an architectural masterpiece from the Norman period, in which we can find expressions of Muslims, Byzantine and Romanesque culture combined to create one of the highest creations of a particular Sicilian style. The church was built in the 12th century and presents by the sides of the façade two enormous square towers. The interior is immense, divided by columns, supporting pointed-arches of the Moorish variety and it is decorated along walls, floor and apses by Byzantine mosaics with gold background. To the  right of  the façade is the entrance to the Cloister of the very old Benedictine monastery, a square formed by the portico, with the arches that delimit the lush garden and are supported by 228 paired columns, all lavishly decorated with a rich variety of ornamentation, many of them with mosaic intarsias and with capitals inlaid with plant, animal and fantastic motifs. The 19th capital of the western line is of particular interest, as William II is depicted offering the cathedral to the Madonna. At the end of the visit, short free time in Monreale and then you will be driven back to the hotel.