After our visits earlier in the morning, the Cathedral of Palermo came as something of an anti-climax. It was founded in 1185, and is a very substantial Norman relic. Apparently, it wasn't finished for centuries, and as you can see below, it was completely outshone by the cathedral at Monreale.
It is clearly a Baroque church inside. There were lots of late 18th century alterations to the dome and the interior which many critics feel were out of character with the building.
We were all somewhat footsore by now, and the bus dropped us in Piazza Verdi by the Teatro Massimo, the opera house, where we took some pictures before setting off for lunch. Most places of interest are shut on Mondays, so we planned to see those that were open, though many of them close for a long lunch. So while we waited, we wandered off to have coffee in the cafe that used to be frequented by Guiseppe de Lampedusa while he was writing 'The Leopard'. Then we returned to the area of the Quattro Canti to visit the church of Santa Caterina.
Words almost fail me here. This is surely Sicilian Baroque at its most extreme; in fact, it seems to me to be Rococo imposed on top of Baroque.
There is no inch of the enormous interior that is not crammed with mad plasterwork, encrusted with wildly decorative relief work, exploding with cherubs, or adorned with gold.
The photo below almost defies description. You hardly know what to look at next. Did I mention the twisted pillars? This is decoration on top of decoration.
We had to sit down for quite a long while to take all this in; while we sat, some other people from our group came in, and recommended the Oratorio of San Lorenzo, which was also open. So we set off there.
The oratorio was much smaller and completely in white. But I don't think I have ever seen plasterwork in such high relief.
We both felt that we had seen more cherubs in a few hours today than we had seen in the entire rest of our lives; the oratorio is just bursting with them.
The plasterwork here is simply amazing. Below is an illustration of St Laurence's martyrdom; he was grilled to death - a horrid thought.
You can see how high the relief is in this plasterwork. This is another place where we were struck dumb, but this time there wasn't even a seat to sit on while we gazed around. There are benches round the walls, but you aren't allowed to sit on them. They have intricately carved legs and veneered seats with mother of pearl inlay; you can't even touch them, let alone sit on them.
The rain started again soon after we left, so we scurried off to a cafe in the main street, and by great good fortune, it had Wi-Fi, so I was able to post the last two days of blog while I refreshed myself. At 5, we went off to meet the rest of our group for a visit to a puppet show.
Puppet theatre has been described as Sicily's most vibrant traditional entertainment, and we saw it in a small theatre near the Cathedral. This is a family business. The owner explained that it was started by his grandfather, and passed on to his father. He now runs it, with the help of his son and grandson. He showed us how to work a puppet, which weighs 10 kilos and is suspended by a rod from its head. He demonstrated how to make it walk; he made it look easy, but none of us could manage it when we tried.
The show was wonderful, with knights and a fair lady, knights fighting one another and then fighting saracens - much metallic clashing of swords, cutting off of heads, cutting of heads or bodies in half - and a wonderful dragon which breathed smoke if not fire.
It was after 6.30 by the time it was all over, so Paul and I walked back to tne hotel. Other people from our group went off to a bar, but we had had enough for one day. Tomorrow is a free day, and we hope not to get too tired. There was a violent thunderstorm around 10, so we were relieved we hadn't been sitting about in a restaurant miles away from the hotel, as we had been on the two previous nights. Later, we met our tour leader, who was not only soaked to the skin, but said the street she had been walking down was running with water which was nearly knee-deep!
No comments:
Post a Comment