Byzantine gold mosaics, an Islamic muqarnas ceiling and Cosmatesque floors: three civilisations in a single room.
Distance
Area
Albergheria
Visit
40 min
Entry
Ticketed
The story
Commissioned by Roger II and consecrated in 1140, this was the private chapel of the Norman court. The walls are covered in Byzantine gold-ground mosaics made by craftsmen from Constantinople; the floor is Roman-school opus sectile; the wooden muqarnas ceiling is the work of Fatimid artisans and is the most important painted Islamic ceiling surviving anywhere. Guy de Maupassant called it 'the most beautiful church in the world'.