Monreale lies at about 310 a.s.l. and 10 km from Palermo. It is one of the most targeted tourist place. Originally named Monte Reale (real Mount), in a position overlooking the Conca d’oro (the Golden Shell), Monreale was a hunting reserve for the during the Norman era and soon became royal residing abode. In 1174 when William II from Altavilla decided to build up here the cathedral, Sanctae Mariae Novae dicatum, the royal palace aside and the Benedictine Monastery, Pope Lucius III nominated Monreale as seat of the Bishop. From then on, a urban nucleus began to be set up and its vital center is even today the area surrounding the monumental site. Piazza Vittorio Emanuele and the Triton Fountain are on the southern side. The main façade looks over a smaller square, from which the cloister and a public garden can be reached. From there you can enjoy the wonderful sight on the golden shell. A legend tells that William II, after his father’s reign, fell asleep under a carob tree while he was hunting in the woods around Monreale.

The Virgin appeared to him and revealed that his father had buried a treasure under that tree. Thus, he was suggested to find it and build a temple on Her honor. The new building should have been magnificent in order to be as wonderful as the cathedrals in the greatest Europeans towns and overcome in beauty the Palatine Chapel, set up by his grandfather Roger. So the best master were implemented without sparing on funds. The church was surrounded by the royal palace in the northern side and the Benedictine monastery in the southern side. Even nowadays you can admire its beautiful cloister. The church is the result of mixing styles: two massive towers on the façade sides, a high apse sided by another two smaller ones, the basilica plan and, then, the structure of the Dome are Norman. Of Islamic origins are instead the decorations on the apse which can be best seen from Via dell’Arcivescovado. Here are still traces of the previous royal palace which is today embodied into the Archbishop Palace. Under the portico on the main façade, dominates the beautiful bronze door realized by Bonanno Pisani in 1185, the same architect and sculptor who made the well known Tower in Pisa. Inside the church are the tombs of William I and William II and, embodied in a small altar, St Louis’s heart, who died in Tunis in 1270 when in Sicily Charles I was reigning. The chapel of the Crucifix has an exuberant baroque decoration in marble and a number of bas-relieves, inlays, whirls. The wooden Crucifix dates back to XV century. The treasure hall guards reliquaries and other objects of veneration.