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PalermoWeb, il
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MONREALE |
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PalermoWeb - Reg.Trib. Pa. n.26-17/09/07 - 1999-202x - Copyright PalermoWeb - Direttore: Rosalinda Camarda - Hosting: Aruba |
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PalermoWeb, il portale di Palermo
MONREALE
The route to Monreale starts from the sea in the Gulf of Palermo, crosses the city passing the Duomo and climbs the slopes of Mt Caputo.
The resort is the main tourist destination in the vicinity of Palermo and owes much of its fame to its incredible Norman Duomo, one of the greatest architectural masterpieces of the Italian Middle Ages.
The exterior is vast in size -100 metres long - and the apses are decorated with blind arches. The great wonder of this construction, however, lies principally in the interior; this has 6340 square metres of polychrome and gilded mosaics cladding the walls of the aisles, the sanctuary and the apses, portraying scenes from the Old and New Testaments.
Annexed to the Duomo are a square cloister, surrounded by a hundred and fourteen pairs of columns, and an old Benedictine convent, also the home of the Civic Gallery of Modern Art. To complete the visit of Monreale, see the church of the Collegiate, founded in the 17th century but considerably altered in the following two centuries, and the Castellaccio, erected by the Normans in the 12th century and the only example of a monastery-fortress in the west of the island.
PalermoWeb - Reg.Trib. Pa. n.26-17/09/07 - 1999-202x - Copyright PalermoWeb - Direttore: Rosalinda Camarda - Hosting: Aruba
