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The metropolitan cathedral of the Holy Virgin Mary Assunta is the main place of catholic worship in the city of Palermo. Is referred to simply as the "Cathedral of Palermo.

History
The first church was built in the IV century. In 604 the cathedral and consecrated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, of which it is received by, probably, the crypt, a basilican plan and square shape.

In 831 the saracens conquered and plundered Palermo, and transform the cathedral in a mosque, but in 1072 the Normans return the church to Christian worship. Between 1184-1185 was completed the reconstruction of the new cathedral, which was commissioned by archbishop Gualtiero Offamilio.

XVII and XIX Century renovation
The church is composed of different styles, in the following centuries it underwent various changes. The last was at the end of the Eighteenth Century, when it radically remade the interior designed by Ferdinando Fuga.

In 1767, the archbishop Filangieri had entrusted to Ferdinand the restoration of the building. The work began only in 1781, carried out not by Ferdinand but by palermo Joseph Venanzio Marvuglia and lasted until the XIX century.

The reworking of the Marvuglia were in reality much more invasive and radical than the projects of the Florentine architect, who thought instead of keep, at least in part, the complex of longitudinal aisles and the original wooden ceiling. The restoration intervened to change the original appearance of the complex, providing the church of the characteristic but discordant dome, performed according to the designs of Ferdinando Fuga.

Kings crowned and buried in the cathedral
In this cathedral, synthesis of history and art of the last millennium in Sicily, in addition to the Norman kings were also crowned Vittorio Amedeo II of Savoy and Carlo III of Bourbon.

In the right aisle, the first and second chapel, communicating with one another, they preserve the imperial and royal tombs of the Normans, those of Frederick II and father of Henry VI.

The sarcophagus of Frederick II is surmounted by a canopy with porphyry columns and the urn is supported by two pairs of lions, together with those of Federico II were also preserved the remains of Peter II of Aragon. Other tombs are those of Constance of Aragon (1183-1222), sister of the king of Aragon, the wife of Frederick II, William, duke of Athens son of Frederick III of Aragon, and of the empress Constance d'Altavilla, daughter of Roger II and mother of Federico II.

The sundial
On the floor of the central nave was made, during the modern restorations, a marble sundial with inlaid colored that represent the signs of the zodiac, (the work of the astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi). The rich altar of the Sacrament, in bronze, variations lapislazuli and colored marbles, was carried out on the design of Cosimo Fanzago (XVII century).

Interior decoration
In the presbytery have the beautiful wooden choir late-fifteenth century in the Catalan Gothic style and the episcopal throne, recomposed in part with fragments of ancient mosaics of the twelfth century. During the phase of the restoration at the end of the eighteenth century, was responsible for the painter of Sciacca, Mariano Rossi to decorate the cathedral. The frescoes, according to the original drawing, had to cover the basin of the apse, the time of the choir, the dome is the central nave, and had to represent ideally the restoration of the Christian religion in Sicily by the Normans.

Mariano Rosso beginning in 1802 and ended all the work, but even today you can admire the frescos in the basin of the apse, where are represented Roberto il Guiscardo is the conte Ruggero that return the church to the bishop Nicodemus and in the vault of the chancel, where it is painted with the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. To the right of the presbytery is the chapel of Santa Rosalia, the patron saint of Palermo, with the relics and the urn of silver, seventeenth-century work of Matthew the Castro, Francesco Ruvolo and Giancola Viviano, carried in procession during the patronal feast on 15 July. The two high reliefs of Valerio Villareale represent Santa Rosalia that invokes Christ for the liberation of the plague and the input of the glorious relics of Santa Rosalia in Palermo.

Other works of artistic interest are the marble statue of the Madonna with Child by Francesco Laurana, of 1469, the valuable stoup opera uncertain Domenico Gagini and the Madonna of the stairs of 1503 by Antonello Gagini. Inside we also find the pipe organ Tamburini, which is located on neoclassical chancels on the sides of the apse, built in 1951.

The treasure of the cathedral
The "treasure of the cathedral", which is composed of sacred vestments in the XVI and XVIII century, frontals, monstrances, chalices, a breviary miniato of the Fifteenth Century and the tiara gold Constance of Aragon. Other precious objects, enamels, embroidery and jewelry, are exposed in central message boards such as for example the breviary parchment of the 1452 coat of arms with an Archbishop Simon from Bologna. The system of bells currently mounted is composed of eight elements assembled with the ambrosian.

Bibliografy
Palermo, in Enciclopedia universale, Rizzoli, Milano 1990, pp.30-45