The Palazzo dei Normanni (Norman Palace) is also called Royal Palace of Palermo. It was the seat of the

Kings of Sicily The monarchs of Sicily ruled from the establishment of the County of Sicily in 1071 until the "perfect fusion" in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1816. The origins of the Sicilian monarchy lie in the Norman conquest of southern Italy which oc ...

with the Hauteville dynasty and served afterwards as the main seat of power for the subsequent rulers of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. Since 1946 it has been the seat of the

Sicilian Regional Assembly The Sicilian Regional Assembly is the legislative body of Sicily. While it has a long history as an autonomous entity, the modern Region of Sicily was established by Royal Decree on 15 May 1946, before the Italian Republic. The Regional Assembly ...

. The building is the oldest royal residence in Europe; and was the private residence of the rulers of the Kingdom of Sicily and the imperial seat of Frederick II and

Conrad IV Conrad (25 April 1228 – 21 May 1254), a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was the only son of Emperor Frederick II from his second marriage with Queen Isabella II of Jerusalem. He inherited the title of King of Jerusalem (as Conrad II) up ...

History

The palace stands in the highest point of the ancient centre of the city, just above the first

Punic The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of t ...

settlements, whose remains can still be found in the basement. The first building was a norman castle. After the Normans conquered Sicily in 1072 (just 6 years after they conquered England) and established Palermo as the capital of the new

County of Sicily The County of Sicily, also known as County of Sicily and Calabria, was a Norman state comprising the islands of Sicily and Malta and part of Calabria from 1071 until 1130. The county began to form during the Christian reconquest of Sicily (106 ...

, the palace was chosen as the main residence of the kings. In 1132 King Roger II added the famous

Cappella Palatina The Palatine Chapel ( it, Cappella Palatina) is the royal chapel of the Norman Palace in Palermo, Sicily. This building is a mixture of Byzantine, Norman and Fatimid architectural styles, showing the tricultural state of Sicily during the 1 ...

to the complex. During the reign of the Swabian emperors, the palace maintained its administrative functions, and was the centre of the

Sicilian School The Sicilian School was a small community of Sicilian and mainland Italian poets gathered around Frederick II, most of them belonging to his imperial court. Headed by Giacomo da Lentini, they produced more than 300 poems of courtly love betwe ...

of poetry, but was seldom used as permanent seat of power, especially during the reign of Frederick II. The

Angevin Angevin or House of Anjou may refer to: *County of Anjou or Duchy of Anjou, a historical county, and later Duchy, in France **Angevin (language), the traditional langue d'oïl spoken in Anjou **Counts and Dukes of Anjou * House of Ingelger, a Frank ...

and Aragonese kings preferred other seats. The palace returned to an important administrative role in the second half of the sixteenth century, when the Spanish viceroys chose it as their official residence, carrying out important reconstructions, aimed at their representative needs and their military ones, with the creation of a system of bastions. Galeria_de_Palermo

The

Spanish Bourbons The House of Bourbon (, also ; ) is a European dynasty of French origin, a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Navarre in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Spanis ...

built additional reception rooms (la Sala Rossa, la Sala Gialla e la Sala Verde) and reconstructed the Sala d'Ercole, named for its frescos depicted the mythological hero,

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the ...

. From 1946, the palace was the seat of the

. The west wing (with the Porta Nuova) was assigned to the

Italian Army "The safeguard of the republic shall be the supreme law" , colors = , colors_labels = , march = ''Parata d'Eroi'' ("Heroes's parade") by Francesco Pellegrino, ''4 Maggio'' (May 4) ...

and is the seat of the Southern Military Region. During the sixties, it received comprehensive restorations under the direction of Rosario La Duca. The palace is also the seat of the Astronomical Observatory of Palermo. The palace contains the

, by far the best example of the so-called Arab-Norman-

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

style that prevailed in the 12th-century Sicily. The wonderful mosaics, the wooden roof, elaborately fretted and painted, and the marble incrustation of the lower part of the walls and the floor are very fine. Of the palace itself the greater part was rebuilt and added in Aragonese times, but there are some other parts of Roger's work left, specially the hall called Sala Normanna.

References

External links

Illustrations of the Cappella PalatinaOfficial site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Palazzo Dei Normanni Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale Royal residences in the Kingdom of Sicily Buildings and structures completed in the 9th century Buildings and structures completed in the 12th century Normanni Arab-Norman architecture in Palermo Romanesque palaces Norman architecture in Italy World Heritage Sites in Italy

History

See also

References

External links