Cefalu Cathedral

Cathedral Santissimo Salvatore of Cefalù
UNESCO world heritage
	Cathedral Santissimo Salvatore of Cefalù
National territory:	Italy
Type:	Culture
Criteria :	(ii) (iv)
Reference No .:	1487
UNESCO region :	Europe and North America
	History of enrollment
Enrollment:	2015 ( session 39 )

View from the Rocca di Cefalù to the cathedral and old town

Christ as Pantocrator in the apse mosaic of the cathedral

The cathedral Santissimo Salvatore in Cefalù is the cathedral of the diocese of Cefalù of the Roman Catholic Church in the ecclesiastical region of Sicily . The cathedral has the title of a minor basilica and is located in Piazza Duomo.

history

The construction of the cathedral was planned by Roger II . According to the legend, he wanted to show thanks to God after his ship got caught in a heavy storm off the north coast of Sicily in 1130 and he was able to save himself to Cefalù. The cathedral was to become his grave church. Construction began in 1131, but work was interrupted several times in the following period. The facade was completed in 1240. The protruding part of the facade dates from 1472 and is the work of Ambrogio da Como . Since 1932 the cathedral has been restored to its original condition and later additions have been removed. Together with the Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral of Monreale , the church was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 2015 .

The outer

The cathedral of Cefalù follows "the ground plan of the great basilicas of Benedictine - Cluniac origin", at the same time it shows influences of Arab architecture. The twin towers were already part of the original church. In the upper part the towers differ slightly, mainly in the windows and the roof tops. The portico was built in 1471 and placed in front of the actual facade. It was built in the Catalan late Gothic style. The originally existing rose windows in the apse were bricked up in 1142. Inside, there should be a larger area for mosaics.

The inner

The interior consists of three naves. The baptismal font dates from 1588. It is made of shell limestone . Remnants of the decor can still be seen on the wooden ceiling.

The mosaics of the apse were completed 1148th They are ruled by the apparition of Christ Pantocrator. There are also Byzantine mosaics. There are also tombs and sculptures in the cathedral, such as a Mother of God with Child from 1533 by Antonello Gagini .

Between 1985 and 2002, Michele Canzoneri designed 42 windows on biblical motifs ( creation , transfiguration of Jesus , events of the Acts of the Apostles , Revelation of John , Last Judgment ). "The stained glass windows of Cefalù are probably among the best liturgical works of art that were created in Italy after the Council ."

literature

Brigit Carnabuci: Sicily. Greek temples, Roman villas, Norman cathedrals and baroque cities in the center of the Mediterranean (= DuMont art travel guide ). 6th, updated edition. DuMont Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2011, ISBN 978-3-7701-4385-6 .
Mirjam Gelfer-Jøgensen: The Islamic paintings in Cefalù Cathedral, Sicily . In: Hafnia. Copenhagen Papers in the History of Art , Vol. 5 (1978), pp. 107-178.
Mirjam Gelfer-Jørgensen: Medieval Islamic Symbolism and the Paintings in the Cefalù Cathedral . Brill, Leiden 1986, ISBN 90-04-07927-0 .
Wolfgang Krönig: Carl Rottmann's view of Cefalù . In: Heinz Ladendorf u. a. (Ed.): Mouseion. Studies in art and history for Otto H. Förster on the occasion of his 65th birthday on November 13, 1959 . Dumont Schauberg, Cologne 1960, pp. 243–246.
Wolfgang Krönig: Cefalù. The Sicilian Norman Dome (Print of the Ark; Vol. 21). Lometsch Verlag, Kassel 1963 (also dissertation, University of Munich 1963).
Guido Di Stefano: Il duomo di Cefalù. Biografia di una cattedrale incompiuta (Quaderni della Facoltà di Architettura dell'Università di Palermo; Vol. 2). Italiamoda, Palermo 1960.
Thomas Thieme, Ingamaj Beck: La cattedrale normanna di Cefalù. Un frammento della civiltà socio-politica della Sicilia mediovale . University Press, Odense 1977, ISBN 87-7492-210-6 .

Footnotes

^ Matthias Ehrhardt: Freedom in the picture. On the images of rulers under Roger II of Sicily and their clients . Herbert Utz Verlag, Munich 2012. ISBN 978-3-8316-4113-0 . P. 126.
^ Hans-Peter Hebel: Arab culture and the European Middle Ages . BücherWerkStatt, Munich 2013. p. 163.
^ Antonio Marchesi: Contemporary stained glass windows in Italian churches . In: Art and Church. Ecumenical magazine for contemporary art and architecture . ISSN 0023-5431 . Volume 77 (2014), Issue 2: Artists' Windows . Pp. 52-59; on the cathedral of Cefalú pp. 58–59, quotation p. 58.

Web links

Commons : Cathedral of Cefalù - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Cloister Cefalù (Cefalù in "CENOBIUM - A project for the multimedia representation of Romanesque cloister capitals in the Mediterranean area" of the Art History Institute in Florence )

38.039822222222 14.023805555556Coordinates: 38 ° 2 ′ 23.4 " N , 14 ° 1 ′ 25.7" E

[1] Matthias Ehrhardt: Freedom in the picture. On the images of rulers under Roger II of Sicily and their clients . Herbert Utz Verlag, Munich 2012. ISBN 978-3-8316-4113-0 . P. 126.

[2] Hans-Peter Hebel: Arab culture and the European Middle Ages . BücherWerkStatt, Munich 2013. p. 163.

[3] Antonio Marchesi: Contemporary stained glass windows in Italian churches . In: Art and Church. Ecumenical magazine for contemporary art and architecture . ISSN 0023-5431 . Volume 77 (2014), Issue 2: Artists' Windows . Pp. 52-59; on the cathedral of Cefalú pp. 58–59, quotation p. 58.