Unesco heritage
Arab-Norman Route
Benedictine Cloister of Monreale
Photo by Ludvig14 CC BY-SA 4.0
228 paired columns, no two capitals alike: a carved encyclopaedia of the 12th century.
- Distance
- Area
- Monreale
- Visit
- 45 min
- Entry
- Ticketed
The story
Built alongside the cathedral in the last quarter of the 12th century for the Benedictine community, the cloister is a 47-metre square with 228 paired columns, some smooth, some fluted, some sheathed in mosaic. Every capital is different: biblical scenes, trades, fantastical animals, and plant motifs of classical and Islamic derivation. In the south-west corner a fountain shaped like a stylised palm trunk forms a small cloister within the cloister.