Idée #741 – Visiting the Norman-Arabo Cefalu City, in Sicily
Cefalu is a historic city, located on the North East coast of Sicily. The site would probably have already been inhabited in prehistoric times. The first Greek settlement is only mentioned from 396 BC, when the city was taken by Dionysius the Elder. Agathocles of Syracuse occupied it in turn in 307 BC. In 254 BC, the city passed under the control of the Romans, who renamed it Cephaloedium, and made it prosper.
Seat of a Byzantine diocese from the 7th century, Cefalù became Muslim in 857. In 1063, it was taken by the Normans led by Roger de Hauteville, an ally of the Papacy. Under the reign of his youngest son, Roger II, the city again became a bishopric in 1132. Many monuments were then built, in particular its famous cathedral in pure Arab-Norman style, built from 1131, and inscribed on the World Heritage List. of UNESCO.
EI Idrisi wrote about twenty years later about the city “It is a fortress endowed with all the prerogatives of a city: markets, baths and mills as well as a washhouse of Arab architecture still existing. ; these are installed exactly in the interior of the city, near the falls of a fresh and fresh water which is also used for the uses of the inhabitants. Cefalù rises on rocks by the sea; it is endowed with a beautiful port — which is the destination of boats coming from all over the world, and it has a considerable population. A citadel dominates the fortress, at the top of a steep mountain, so to speak inaccessible. »
From 1194, Cefalu was integrated into the Holy Roman Empire of the Hohenstaufen. The city has several heritage elements that bear witness to these periods, such as the ancient and Byzantine fortifications of La Rocca, the cathedral, the medieval washhouse, the medieval enclosure, and many churches.
The Arab-Norman Palermo and the cathedrals of Cefalú and Monreale are an exceptional example of stylistic synthesis which gave rise to new concepts of space, construction and decoration thanks to the innovative and coherent rearrangement of elements from different cultures. .
Some Pictures
Where is it ?
Cefalu, Sicily, Italia
