Page 167 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

The Duomo

Piazza Duomo • Daily: summer 8am–7pm; winter 8am–5.30pm

Central to Cefalù’s historic existence is its majestic Duomo, set back in a pretty
square under the cliffs. Apocryphally, it was built in gratitude by Roger II, who found
refuge at the town’s safe beach in a violent storm, though it’s more likely that the
cathedral owed its foundation to his power struggle with Pope Innocent II. Shortly
after his coronation in 1130, Roger had allied instead with Anacletus, the anti-pope,
whose support enhanced the new king’s prestige. Roger’s cathedral benefited from

Anacletus’s readily granted exemptions and privileges, and it is at once rich and
showy, from the massive, fortress-like exterior to the earliest and best preserved of all
Sicilian church mosaics. With all the former Baroque decoration finally stripped away
after years of “restoration”, the impact of the mosaics is profound. Dating from 1148
(forty years older than those at Monreale), they are thoroughly Byzantine in concept

and follow a familiar pattern: Christ Pantocrator, right hand outstretched in
benediction, open Bible in the left, dominates the central apse; underneath is the
Madonna flanked by archangels; then the twelve Apostles, in two rows of six.

Museo Mandralisca

Via Mandralisca 13 • Daily: Jan–July & Sept–Dec 9am–7pm; Aug 9am–11pm • €5 • 0921 421 547,
fondazionemandralisca.it
The cathedral is very much the cultural highlight in Cefalù, though just down the road,

the Museo Mandralisca houses a small collection of quality objects. On the first floor
you’ll find the star exhibit, a wry and inscrutable Portrait of an Unknown Man by the
fifteenth-century Sicilian master Antonello da Messina. Look out, too, for the quirky
Greek krater (fourth century BC) showing a robed tuna-fish salesman, knife in hand,
disputing the price of his fish.

La Rocca and the Tempio di Diana