Palermo, the capital city of Sicily
The Cathedral of Monreale is one of the greatest extant examples of Norman architecture in the world. Construction started in 1174 during the reign of William II and in 1182 the church, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, was elevated to the rank of a metropolitan cathedral by a bull of Pope Lucius III. The cathedral interior contains the largest cycle of Byzantine mosaics extant in Italy.
Photo by Ludo Kuipers, Fri Oct 14, 1994