Monreale Cathedral mosaics

Common card · No. 394192

The Monreale Cathedral Mosaics are the main internal feature of Monreale Cathedral in the city of Palermo, Sicily, Italy; the mosaics cover 6,500 m2. The mosaics are made up of glass tesserae in the Byzantine style at the orders of William II of Sicily. The main attraction of Monreale Cathedral is its 130 mosaics, which cover almost all the interior walls of the cathedral. In terms of area and conceptual integrity, the Monreale mosaics are one of the largest mosaic cycles in the world. Most of the mosaics were completed in a record short period between 1183 and 1189. The cathedral was then erected in a royal park on the site of an earlier Greek church. However, work on the structure as well as its decoration was, for the most part, completed following the death of the king in 1189. The cathedral was then later consecrated to the Assumption of the Virgin.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0