PALAZZO DEI NORMANNI E CAPELLA PALATINA

Useful information. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, the Royal Apartments are closed to the public for parliamentary business, while the Palatine Chapel remains open. So make sure you come along on other days if you can. A temporary exhibition is on display in another wing of the palace.

Palais des Normands. This is the current seat of the Sicilian Regional Assembly. Originally a Punic fortress in the ^7th century BC, it became a centre of power during three centuries of Byzantine occupation, starting with the reign of Belisarius in 535 BC. But it was the Arabs who built the present palace in the ^9th century, enlarged by the Normans in the ^12th century. It then enjoyed its heyday, and it's to this Arab-Norman architecture that it owes its Unesco World Heritage listing. But it was between the late ^16th and early ^17th centuries, during the Spanish Viceroyalty, that its imposing façade was built. Inside, accessed via a beautiful ^17th-century courtyard adorned with arcades and loggias, are the royal apartments (now the seat of Parliament). The Hall of Hercules is decorated with the twelve labors, but the Hall of King Roger is by far the most interesting. The walls and especially the ceiling are adorned with superb ^12th-century Byzantine mosaics. On a dazzling golden background, Arabian-inspired friezes, peacocks, lions, cheetahs, swans, a clawed eagle clutching a rabbit and mythological centaurs and griffins scroll past. A deer-hunting scene amid exotic palm trees could echo the theme of Islamic "paradise on earth".

Palatine Chapel. Located on the second floor of the Palais des Normands, this chapel is dedicated to the apostles Peter and Paul. Built by King Roger II between 1132 and 1140, this chapel is the most harmonious example of Arab-Byzantine and Norman art we have ever seen: "the most surprising jewel dreamed up by human thought", as Maupassant put it. The dazzling interior combines Norman architecture with Arab-Byzantine mosaic decoration. The result is splendid. A marble transept surrounds the sanctuary, raised by steps. The central nave is topped by a magnificent wooden coffered ceiling with muqarnas, created in 1143 by Arab craftsmen. The porphyry and marble mosaic floor, decorated with arabesques, is perfectly intact. The walls are covered in marble, while the upper part features a superb cycle of gilded mosaics created by Byzantine artists in the ^12th century and renovated in the ^18th century. They depict the stories of St. Peter and St. Paul on the aisles, while the central nave features scenes from the Old Testament, accompanied by Latin inscriptions dating from 1154. Christ Pantocrator, the sanctuary's dominant figure, rises from the vaulted ceiling in shades of blue and gold, a tribute to the sky and sun of Sicily. The sacred furnishings in Norman marble are of the highest quality, and the royal throne in the central nave, with its mosaic ornaments, is particularly noteworthy. A visit not to be missed.

Palace garden. Open to visitors, you can see banyan trees (exotic ficus) with giant roots. The price of the visit is high for the little tour inside: you'll admire the banyan trees on the other side of the fence just as freely...