Architectures de tradition islamique dans la Sicile normande

Even if the examples that can be attributed to the Islamic architecture are no more visible, or totally identifiable, we can assert in any case, that in the Norman Sicily, some monuments appeal to the artistic culture and tradition elaborated by Egypt’s Fatimid and by their vassals of Ifriqiya (Medieval Tunisia). The present essay, through three examples of chosen religious buildings, Saint Nicolò Regale in Mazara del Vallo (1124) and Trinity of Delia in Castelvetrano (1130), both placed in the Province of Trapani, and S. Maria dell’Ammiraglio in Palermo (1143), put in evidence this ideal chain of cultural contributions, whose provenance is the South Shore of Mediterranean Sea. These examples, but also others, well-known to the public, as the painted ceilings of Palatine Chapel in Palermo (1140) or of the Cathedral in Cefalù (1150) or also the Palace of Zisa (1164-1180) and the Palace of Cuba (1180), demonstrate clearly the great circulation of models and artisans that worked in Sicilian ambit and that found at the Norman Court the new dynamic centre of the artistic production of that period.