Palermo
The Norman Mosaic
Portrait
The Normans took Sicily from the Arabs in 1072 and kept everything: their Palatine Chapel has a Fatimid honeycomb ceiling, Byzantine gold mosaics and Latin liturgy in one room, an arrangement UNESCO calls Arab-Norman and nobody has repeated. The markets — Ballarò, Vucciria — are still called out in a sing-song that predates Italian.
Nearby in the atlas
Agrigento — The Valley of TemplesTaormina — Balcony over the IonianNoto — Baroque After the EarthquakeSyracuse — The Greek Theatre
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