San Giovanni degli Eremiti description and photos - Italy: Palermo (Sicily) (Topic)

San Giovanni degli Eremiti description and photos - Italy: Palermo (Sicily). Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is San Giovanni degli Eremiti.

Photo and description

San Giovanni degli Eremiti is one of the largest monasteries in Palermo, once owned by Benedictine monks. Located between Palazzo dei Normanni and the Church of San Giuseppe in Cafasso, it is a monument of Arab-Norman architecture.

According to legend, at the very beginning of the 1st millennium, a pagan temple of Mercury stood on this place. In the 6th century, by order of Pope Gregory I, a monastery was founded here, consecrated in honor of the Apostle Hermias. And when Sicily was captured by the Arabs, they turned the monastery into a mosque. True, historians and archaeologists have never been able to find traces of both an ancient pagan temple and a later monastery and mosque at the site of San Giovanni degli Eremiti, so all of the above remains only a legend.

It is reliably known that however, that in 1136 Roger II ordered the construction of a Benedictine monastery for hermits from Montevergine next to his royal palace. Interestingly, the abbot of the monastery received the rank of bishop and became the king's personal confessor. He also had the right to perform services in the famous Palatine Chapel. Roger II himself also bequeathed to bury all uncrowned members of his family in this monastery, but his instruction was never carried out.

The reasons for the desolation of the monastery are still unknown. In the middle of the 15th century, Cardinal Giovanni Nicola Ursino, with the permission of Pope Paul II, gave the building to the monks from San Martino delle Scale. And in 1866, San Giovanni degli Eremiti, like most of the monasteries in Italy, was abolished. At the end of the 19th century, large-scale restoration work was carried out within its walls, as a result of which the building acquired its original Arab-Norman appearance. Today it houses a museum.

The architecture of the monastery and the church associated with it is quite remarkable. A distinctive feature of the church is the five red hemispherical domes typical of the mosques of Egypt and North Africa. In Palermo, something similar can be seen in the Church of San Cataldo. To the right of the church is a small rectangular building, which is considered a modified Arab mosque of the 9-11 centuries. However, no evidence was found for this. Another feature of San Giovanni degli Eremiti is the fact that its cloister, the gallery that forms the courtyard, has no roof.

The interior decoration of the religious complex is very strict - no traces of mosaics or frescoes were found here, which are probably disappeared due to the long absence of the roof of the church.

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Topic: San Giovanni degli Eremiti description and photos - Italy: Palermo (Sicily).