The twelfth-century Cappella Palatina in Palermo is among the most spectacular of medieval sites. (Fig. 1.1 chapel interior) The chapel is part of the Palazzo dei Normanni, a site that has a long history with remains dating as far back as the ninth century. Upon entering the chapel, a basilica-plan space with a nave arcade of Roman spolia columns and capitals (Fig. 1.2 arcade) supporting upper walls of Byzantinesque mosaics with a richly painted muqarnas ceiling (Fig. 1.3 ceiling) is visible. The outer aisles are panelled with marble wainscoting framed by intricately patterned inlaid borders. (Fig. 1.4 aisles) The pavement is laid in a rich and complex pattern (Fig. 1.5 pavement). The west end of the chapel features a raised platform believed to have held Roger II’s throne with a fastigium inlaid into the lower wall and a mosaic of an enthroned Christ flanked by Peter and Paul above. (Fig. 1.6 Nave looking west) The east end of the building is also richly decorated with Byzantine-like mosaics on a gold ground. (Fig. 1.7 dome) This includes the squinch-supported dome with an image of the Pantokrator that covers the central square of the choir. Also visible are the rectangular pulpit and elaborately carved paschal candelabrum. (Fig. 1.8 pulpit) Porphyry is used extensively throughout the building as seen by the large disk in the south aisle wainscoting and some floor panels, the large rectangular panel on the pulpit, the octagonal panel on the wall of the throne platform and the columns flanking the apse.

How did these seemingly disparate elements come together in this monument? As a royal chapel, its program is closely tied to its Norman patron and monarch. Roger II negotiated a position for himself as king, which in itself does not fit into the conventional categories for twelfth-century western European Christian rulers. The chapel embodies his role as apostolic legate and integrator of political and religious power similar to his Muslim and Byzantine contemporaries. The chapel is a dynamic interplay between the new kingdom of Norman Sicily and its Mediterranean past and present as well as the Latin Christian culture to the north.

The Norman conquest of southern Italy and Sicily, begun by Roger II’s father and uncle, was more piecemeal and gradual than the Norman conquest of England.