Monreale, Italy

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secular and religious authority is represented here in incomparable fashion. With its cycle of mosaics on a gold ground and its cloister the cathedral can lay claim to a position of the highest rank in the history of European art.

History

Monreale's history is closely tied up with the combination of forces which enabled the Norman king William II to come to power.

William, born in 1154, became king after the death of his father William I in 1166 and after the declaration of his majority ruled on his own from 1172 until his early death in 1189, a period of 17 years. There were tensions between the crown and the papacy, similar to those which occurred throughout medieval history. The papal position was championed uncompromisingly by the English archbishop of the royal seat of Palermo, Walter of the Mill/Gualterius Offamilius: on his orders King Roger II was not buried in the cathedral at Cefalù, as he had instructed, but in the cathedral in Palermo which was under the archbishop's control. By so doing he emphasized the point that the office of king derived from the Pope and that it was he, Walter, who had the power to confirm this office. Thus it became necessary to assert the authority of the king, as William's grandfather Roger II had done - following the example of the Emperors of Byzantium, who dominated their patriarchs and clergy unchallenged.

William II reacted unambiguously and with the means available to him at that time. He emphasized the theocratic character of his government by initiating a vast complex of buildings, including a Benedictine monastery and a royal residence, on an eminence overlooking Palermo, surrounded by a large royal park - hence the name Monreale, originally Mons Regalis = royal mountain. The abbot became bishop and as early as 1183 was raised to archbishop. The King invested his foundation with privileges and an extensive landholding, so that Monreale was richer than the archbishopric of Palermo. In addition he stipulated that Monreale should become the burial place for his dynasty.

William II's pretensions became absolutely clear when in 1172, two years after Archbishop Walter had begun rebuilding the cathedral in Palermo, he ordered the Basilica of Monreale to be constructed, as a challenge to the archbishop. Furthermore he had the satisfaction of seeing his brainchild to a large extent completed by 1185.