CHURCH OF SAN GIOVANNI DEGLI EREMITI, Church Of San Giovanni Degli Eremiti

Hi, my name’s Jill, and I’m your personal guide. Along with MyWoWo, I’d like to welcome you to one of the Wonders of the World: San Giovanni degli Eremiti.

The Church of San Giovanni degli Eremiti is one of the most fascinating monuments in Palermo.

It was built on the spot of an ancient monastery that the Arabs destroyed and replaced with a mosque. When the Normans arrived, however, part of the mosque was demolished and around 1150, Roger II incorporated the remains into the church building we can see today. The church was repaired in 1535, on the orders of Charles V, the new ruler of Sicily, and was restored in 1882 by the renowned architect Giuseppe Patricolo, who brought the medieval structures back to light and rid the church of all the subsequent features, in an attempt to restore the appearance that it had in Norman times.

The building is pure and simple in shape, devoid of decoration, and has a characteristic roof with red domes that match the one on the bell tower. The two larger domes correspond to the main nave, while the smaller two are placed at different levels above the transept. The windows are now bare, but were once embellished with a geometric tracery pattern, characteristic of Islamic architecture....