Tag: UNESCO world heritage site
-
Today, Wear Comfortable Shoes
On Day 4 of Savoring Sicily, you’ll start the morning by greeting the gods at Agrigento’s Valley of the Temples. First stop, the 5th century B.C. Temple of Juno (or Hera, if you are Greek!). This magnificent monument is just one of seven in the UNESCO World Heritage Site that spans 2 kilometers. So wear…
-
Palermo’s Oasis of Tranquility
My favorite Norman, King Roger II, commissioned Palermo’s San Giovanni degli Eremiti (Saint John of the Hermits) in 1130. Completed in 1148, its red domes rise above a garden of citrus trees, roses, fichi d’india, jasmine, and other exotic plants. On Monday afternoon, we wandered through the pathways and cloister of this oasis of tranquility…
-
Arab-Norman Design: Give Credit Where Credit is Due
Feeling somewhat like a miniature of a basilica 3 or 4 times as large as it is, the 32 meter long Cappella Palatina inside Palermo’s Royal Palace (Palazzo dei Normanni) is, simply put, spectacular. As soon as you enter, you’ll become lost in the dozens of stories depicted by dizzying mosaic scenes. Constructed between 1132…
-
Persia in Palermo
Illustrating the Persian-Middle Eastern influences on Arab-Norman architecture, the mosaic designs of the Sala di Re Ruggero (King Roger’s Salon) inside Palermo’s Royal Palace (Palazzo dei Normanni) are splendid. Unlike their siblings in the Cappella Palatina (just downstairs in the palace), these mosaic designs are secular in nature, depicting hunting and natural scenes featuring trees,…
-
The Royal Palace of Palermo
The Royal Palace in Palermo, better known as il Palazzo dei Normanni, is today the seat of Sicily’s regional parliament. However, since the middle of the 16th century, it was the seat of the Spanish viceroys and then the Bourbons who built it to its (more or less) current state. Its hodgepodge of architectural styles…
-
The Admiral’s Seven Arches Bridge
This seven-arched bridge once crossed the Oreto River (now dried up or relegated to flow underground) on the south-east side of Palermo’s historic center. Known as the Ponte dell’Ammiraglio, or Admiral’s Bridge, it was built in 1113 by Roger II’s emir of emirs, George of Antioch. Today, this wonder of Arab-Norman architecture sits in a…
-
Our May 2016 Tour: Tall, Massive, and Handsome
The Temple of Heracles (also known as the Temple of Hercules) of Agrigento’s Valley of the Temples possesses eight reconstructed, massive Doric-style columns. Built in the late 6th century BC, it is considered the first temple to have been built of the seven that we know of at the Valley of the Temples. Valley of…
-
Our May Tour, Day 3: Be Mesmerized
Get personal with the amazing mosaics at the Cathedral of Monreale on Day 3 of our May Experience Sicily small-group tour. Built by the Norman King William II (“The Good”) in the late 12th century, this UNESCO site boasts thousands of beautiful and one of a kind tile designs, like the one pictured, that will…