There are three other churches of Palermo which exhibit the new mixed style in all its completeness. These are the Martorana (1113-1143), in which the Byzantine element prevails somewhat to the exclusion of the other two; the Capella Palatina in the Palace, built in 1132; and the more magnificent church of Monreale, near Palermo (Woodcut No. 532), begun in 1174, and certainly the finest and most beautiful of all the buildings erected by the Normans in this country. This church is 315 ft. in its extreme length; while the beautiful gem-like Capella of the royal palace is much smaller, being only 125 ft. long, and consequently inferior in grandeur, though in the relative proportions of its parts, and in all other essential points, very similar.
[Illustration: 531. San Giovanni degli Eremiti, Palermo. (From Gally Knight’s ‘Normans in Sicily.’)]
In arrangement and dimensions the cathedral of Monreale very much resembles that at Messina, showing the same general influence in both; but all the details of the Palermitan example betray that admixture of Greek and Saracenic feeling which is the peculiarity of Sicilian architecture. There is scarcely a single form or detail in the whole building which can strictly be called Gothic, or which points to any connection with Northern arts or races. The plan of this, as of all the Sicilian churches, is that of a Roman basilica, far more than of a Gothic church. In none of them was any vault ever either built or intended. The central is divided from the side-aisles by pillars of a single stone, generally borrowed from ancient temples, but (in this instance at least) with capitals of great beauty, suited to their position and to the load they have to support. The pier-arches are pointed, but not Gothic, having no successive planes of decoration, but being merely square masses of masonry of simple but stilted forms. The windows, too, though pointed, are undivided, and evidently never meant for painted glass. The roofs of the naves are generally of open framing, like those of the basilicas, and ornamented in Saracenic taste. The aisles, the intersection of the transepts and nave, and the first division of the sanctuary are generally richer, and consequently more truly Moorish. The apse again is Roman. Taken altogether, it is only the accident of the pointed arch having been borrowed from the Moors that has led to the idea of Gothic feeling existing in these edifices. It does exist at Messina and Cefalu, but in Palermo is almost wholly wanting.
