The Chiesa della Martorana (formally Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio Our Lady of the Admiral) is the most undervisited significant Norman monument in Palermo and the church that most directly rewards the visitor who arrives without the crowd that the Cappella Palatina always attracts. Built in 1143 by George of Antioch, the Greek-Orthodox admiral of Roger II’s fleet, the church contains the finest 12th-century Byzantine mosaics in Palermo outside the Cappella Palatina including the most historically important single image in the Norman Sicilian programme, the portrait of Roger II being crowned by Christ, the only surviving contemporary portrait of the first King of Sicily. The church is UNESCO-inscribed as part of the Arab-Norman Palermo World Heritage Site (2015) and is open for regular visits alongside its continuing liturgical use as a Greek-Catholic church. It also gave its name to the most celebrated Sicilian confectionery tradition the frutta di Martorana, the marzipan fruits that the Benedictine nuns of the adjacent convent developed from the almond paste tradition of the Arab kitchen.
In this guide
- History George of Antioch and Roger II
- The architecture
- The mosaics
- The portrait of Roger II
- The portrait of George of Antioch
- The Benedictine convent and the frutta martorana
- The Sicilian Parliament of 1282
- Visiting practical information
- FAQ
History George of Antioch and Roger II
Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio was founded in 1143 by George of Antioch (Giorgio di Antiochia) the most celebrated admiral of Roger II’s fleet, a Greek Orthodox Christian of Syrian origin who had risen to the highest military command in the Norman kingdom through his extraordinary administrative and naval competence. George’s foundation of the church reflects the specific social reality of the Norman court of Palermo: a Syrian Greek serving a Norman king, building a Greek Orthodox church in the Arab-Norman architectural style, in the most cosmopolitan city in the Mediterranean world. The church’s full official title acknowledges this complexity “Our Lady of the Admiral” refers to George’s role; the Norman-Arab architectural style reflects the court’s specific aesthetic; the Byzantine mosaics reflect George’s Orthodox faith and his access to the finest Byzantine mosaic craftsmen available in the Mediterranean.
The church was subsequently acquired by the Benedictine nuns of the adjacent convent founded by Eloisa Martorana in 1193 and it is from this convent’s founder that the church takes its popular name. The Martorana nuns modified the original Norman structure significantly in the 16th and 17th centuries, adding the baroque nave that now constitutes the primary entrance space of the church and that represents the most jarring architectural discontinuity available at any Norman monument in Palermo the visitor who enters the baroque nave and turns back to see the Norman apse and dome has performed the most compressed architectural time-travel in the city.
The Architecture
The original Norman church of 1143 was a centrally planned building a Greek cross plan with a central dome, the standard Byzantine ecclesiastical plan that George of Antioch chose in preference to the Latin basilica plan of the western church tradition. The building was subsequently modified three times: the addition of the narthex (the entry vestibule) by the Normans themselves, the addition of the baroque nave by the Martorana nuns in the 16th century and the loss of the original Norman bell tower in a 1726 earthquake. The result is a building whose exterior gives no indication of the extraordinary interior the baroque facade of the current entrance bears no relationship to the Norman structure behind it.
The Norman original is best understood from the interior the central dome above the Greek cross plan, the drum of the dome with its mosaic programme and the apse behind the altar providing the complete Norman church spatial experience. The specific quality of the Norman interior: the gold mosaic surfaces covering the dome, the drum and the apse create the specific luminous quality of the Byzantine church interior the theological programme of the light reflected and refracted by the gold ground of the mosaic, filling the interior with a diffuse warmth that the direct window light of the western church cannot replicate. This is the specific quality of the Cappella Palatina, condensed into a smaller and more intimate space and available without the Cappella’s crowds.
The Mosaics
The mosaic programme of Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio executed in the 1140s by the Byzantine craftsmen who also worked on the Cappella Palatina, using the same gold tesserae ground and the same formal stylised figure programme of the Comnenian Byzantine tradition is the finest 12th-century Byzantine mosaic programme in Palermo outside the Cappella Palatina. The programme covers the dome (the Christ Pantocrator in the central medallion, the archangels in the drum), the apse (the Virgin Orant the Virgin in the prayer posture with arms raised in the half-dome) and the cross arms of the original Greek cross plan.
The specific quality of the Martorana mosaics compared to the Cappella Palatina: they are more intimate (the smaller scale of the church brings the mosaic surfaces physically closer to the viewer), more concentrated (the theological programme of the Norman palatine chapel is condensed here into a single coherent iconographic statement) and more accessible (the absence of the Cappella Palatina’s ticketed queue and time-limited admission means that the Martorana mosaics can be examined at leisure and at close range). The gold of the Martorana apse in the afternoon light, when the low western sun enters the apse window and activates the gold tesserae, is among the most specifically beautiful single interior light effects available in any Norman monument in Sicily. Read our complete Cappella Palatina guide.
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A guided tour of the Arab-Norman Palermo UNESCO World Heritage circuit the Chiesa della Martorana mosaics, the Cappella Palatina and the complete story of the Norman court that created the most sophisticated cultural synthesis in medieval Europe. Expert English-speaking guides. Morning departures.
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The Portrait of Roger II
The most historically important single image in the Norman Sicilian programme is in the Chiesa della Martorana the mosaic portrait of Roger II being crowned by Christ (the image known as “Roger II receiving the crown from Christ”) in the southern wall of the narthex. This is the only surviving contemporary portrait of the first King of Sicily the only image made during Roger II’s lifetime that shows his physical appearance, his royal insignia and the specific theological programme of his kingship (the direct crown from Christ, bypassing the papal mediation that the western church required for royal coronation).
The theological statement of the image is as important as the historical record: Roger II is depicted in the Byzantine manner of the imperial coronation the direct conferral of the crown from Christ without an intermediary, the specific visual argument for the divine right of the Norman king that the papacy contested and that Roger here asserts in gold mosaic on the wall of his admiral’s church. The royal insignia (the loros, the Byzantine imperial ceremonial scarf), the Greek inscription identifying the figure as King Roger and the specific visual language of the Byzantine imperial portrait programme together constitute the most concentrated single expression of the Norman royal ideology available in any monument in Sicily.
The Portrait of George of Antioch
The companion image to the Roger II portrait is the mosaic of George of Antioch prostrating himself before the Virgin in the northern wall of the narthex the image of the church’s founder in the act of dedicating the building, with the Greek inscription identifying him as “the Emir of Emirs” (the highest court title in the Norman kingdom, held by George as the senior official of the realm). The George of Antioch portrait provides the specific human dimension that the Roger II image lacks where Roger is depicted as a king receiving divine coronation, George is depicted as a Christian believer committing himself to the Virgin’s intercession. The two images together constitute the most complete surviving visual record of the Norman court’s relationship with Byzantine religious and political imagery.
The Benedictine Convent and the Frutta Martorana
The Benedictine convent of the Martorana, founded by Eloisa Martorana in 1193 adjacent to George of Antioch’s church, is credited with the invention of the frutta di Martorana the hand-modelled marzipan fruits that are the most visually extraordinary confectionery tradition in Sicily. The story: the convent’s Benedictine nuns, preparing for a royal visit in the Norman period, decorated the courtyard orange and lemon trees with almond paste fruits when the actual fruit was not in season producing the first trompe l’oeil confectionery objects in the Sicilian tradition and the model for the marzipan fruit programme that has been produced in Palermo ever since.
The attribution is probably partly legendary (the almond paste tradition certainly pre-dates any single documented episode), but the connection between the Martorana convent and the frutta di Martorana is historically credible the Benedictine kitchen of the Norman period had access to the finest Arab confectionery techniques and ingredients available in the Mediterranean, and the specific visual ambition of the trompe l’oeil fruit is consistent with a kitchen culture that also produced the cassata and the pasta di mandorla traditions of the Palermitan convent kitchen. The frutta di Martorana remains the most specifically Sicilian single confectionery object available at the Palermo pasticcerie today. Read our complete Sicilian almond sweets guide.
The Sicilian Parliament of 1282
The Chiesa della Martorana was the setting for the most politically consequential single event in medieval Sicilian history the meeting of the Sicilian Parliament in March 1282 that offered the crown of Sicily to Peter III of Aragon following the Sicilian Vespers uprising. The Sicilian Vespers (the mass uprising against the French Angevin rule of Sicily that began on the evening of March 30th, 1282, the Monday after Easter, traditionally dated to the ringing of vespers at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Palermo) had eliminated the Angevin administration of Sicily in a matter of weeks; the Sicilian barons and representatives who met in the Martorana to offer the crown to Peter III of Aragon (who was married to the Norman-Hohenstaufen heir Constance) were performing the specific constitutional act that would determine the future of the island for the next two centuries.
The Parliament in the Martorana is the most historically charged single event associated with any Norman church in Palermo the moment when the Sicilian political community asserted its right to choose its own ruler, in the most sacred and most politically resonant Norman church available to them, using the constitutional procedures of the Norman kingdom to transfer sovereignty to a new dynasty. The church where Roger II’s admiral placed himself under the Virgin’s protection became, 139 years later, the place where Sicily offered itself to a new king.
Visiting Practical Information
Address: Piazza Bellini 3, Palermo. The church faces the Piazza Bellini, adjacent to the Church of San Cataldo visiting both churches in the same visit is the standard programme and provides the most complete single-piazza Norman architectural experience in Palermo.
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday 9am to 1pm and 3.30pm to 5.30pm; Sunday 8.30am to 1pm (liturgical use visits may be restricted during services). The church is still actively used for Greek-Catholic liturgy; be respectful of services in progress.
Entry fee: Approximately €2 adults the lowest entry price of any Norman monument in Palermo. The modest fee reflects the church’s continuing liturgical function rather than the quality of the interior.
Best visiting time: The afternoon visit (3.30pm to 5pm) provides the finest light in the apse the low western sun activates the gold tesserae of the apse mosaic in a way that the morning visit cannot replicate. The morning visit is appropriate for the Roger II and George of Antioch portrait mosaics in the narthex, which receive better morning light. Read our complete Palermo guide.
FAQ about the Chiesa della Martorana
What is the Chiesa della Martorana?
The Chiesa della Martorana (formally Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio) is a 12th-century Norman church in Palermo built by George of Antioch, the admiral of Roger II, in 1143. It contains the finest 12th-century Byzantine mosaics in Palermo outside the Cappella Palatina, including the only surviving contemporary portrait of Roger II, the first King of Sicily. It is UNESCO-inscribed as part of the Arab-Norman Palermo World Heritage Site.
Why is it called the Martorana?
The church takes its popular name from Eloisa Martorana, who founded the adjacent Benedictine convent in 1193. The convent subsequently acquired the church and is also credited with the invention of the frutta di Martorana the hand-modelled marzipan fruits that bear the convent’s name.
Is the Martorana worth visiting?
Yes, strongly the Martorana provides the most intimate and the most accessible Norman mosaic experience in Palermo, without the crowds of the Cappella Palatina and at a fraction of the entry cost. The Roger II portrait mosaic is the most historically important single image in the Norman Sicilian programme. The afternoon light in the apse is among the most beautiful interior light effects available in any Norman church in Sicily.
The Church That Contains Everything
The Chiesa della Martorana contains, in a space of 30 metres by 20 metres, the most compressed version of the Norman cultural synthesis available in Palermo the Greek admiral’s church built in the Arab-Norman style with Byzantine mosaics for an Orthodox Christian serving a Latin Christian king in the most cosmopolitan court in medieval Europe; the portrait of that king receiving his crown from Christ in the language of the Byzantine emperor rather than the western Catholic king; the mosaics made by the same craftsmen who made the Cappella Palatina, in the same tradition, with the same gold; the convent that gave its name to the most celebrated Sicilian confectionery tradition; the Parliament that offered a crown and changed the political history of an island. The Martorana is the place where the Norman synthesis is most concentrated and most legible. It costs €2 to enter. It takes 45 minutes to see properly. It is the most underpriced significant monument in Sicily.
For the complete Arab-Norman programme, read our Cappella Palatina guide, our La Zisa guide and our Norman Sicily heritage guide.
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