Palermo - Santo Spirito (Chiesa del Vespro)

Following the Corso Tukåry westward from the main station, turn left into Via del Vespro and the Sant'Orsol Cemetery. Here stands the Chiesa del Vespro or Santo Spirito, in front of which the "Sicilian Vespers" (the murder or expulsion of all the French in Palermo and later in the whole of Sicily) began on 31st March 1282 and from which event it obtained its second name.

It was this event which inspired Verdi to write his opera of the same name. The church was built in 1173-78 by Archbishop Walter of the Mill (Gualterius Offamilius) as the oratorium of a Cistercian abbey, outside the city walls as they were at the time. In the years that followed it was frequently altered, especially when the viceroy Domenico Caracciolo had the abbey pulled down in 1782 to make room for the new cemetery. It was not until 1882, the 600th anniversary of the Sicilian Vespers, that the decision was taken to restore it in its original form.

The north side is impressively colorful, as is the east side with the crossed arches of the three apses made from lava. The south side is simpler, for it is here that the cloister adjoins the building. In the south transept signs of earlier abbey-buildings can be seen. The interior of the Basilica, clearly reflecting the strictness of the Cistercian Order, has two rows of round pillars supporting the ogival arcades. The tall chancel is separated by an ogee arch. The roof trusses are open in form.