The Duomo of Cefalù: Unesco Heritage
If you’ll enter the main street in Cefalù, that is Corso Ruggero, you’ll arrive at piazza del municipio, overlooked by the renowned Cefalù Duomo, an Arabic-Normann art treasure registered as UNESCO heritage since 2015 and part of the Arabic-Normann itinerary.
The Cathedral is called “Cattedrale della Trasfigurazione”, and represents a true melting pot of different cultures which coexisted in Cefalù in history. Byzantines are responsible for many of the internal decorations and mosaics, Arabs for the style of windows without glass typical of Arabic kasbah, while Normans for the vertical embrasures of the walls. On the outside, the Church shows its medieval origin with turrets embellished with Guelph and Ghibelline elements. Next to the building is the oldest cloister in Sicily, embellished with medieval columns.Next to the building is the oldest cloister in Sicily, embellished with medieval columns.
INSIDE THE CATHEDRAL: BETWEEN ART AND HISTORY
Traversing the naves inside the Cathedral, among the guarded works you find, the sculpture of Madonna who keeps holds the Christ Child in her hands made of marble by the artist from Palermo Antonello Gagini, the glass walls decorated at the end of XX century and various works like the sarcophagus of Cefalù’s bishop. Finally, you arrive at the altar, which keeps the masterpiece of this Cathedral: the Christ Pantocrator, standing out in the middle of a bare furniture, symbol of the coexistence of orthodox and catholic religion. In this mosaic, Christ reminds his double nature (human and divine) with his right hand and shows a passage of the Bible with his left hand.
The visit at the Cathedral is a stop-over not to exclude for its innumerable beauties. Next to the church, there is the cloister embellished with medieval columns.
OPENING HOURS
The site is visitable everyday in the following hours:
Monday-Friday: 08.00 a.m.-12.45 p.m. / 3.30 p.m.-5.45 p.m.
Saturday-Sunday: 08.00 a.m.-12.45 p.m. / 3.30 p.m.-7.30 p.m.