Monreale Cathedral built in the 11th century by the Normans. It is on a hill overlooking Palermo, Sicily and the rather plain and unimpressive exterior gives no hint to the grandeur and beauty of its interior. The mosaic work is breathtaking.
It was a bit of a nightmare to photograph, being both cavernous and dark and there was a “no tripod” rule. A flash would have been useless as the size of the place would have either swallowed the light or the gold, marble and glass would have reflected it right back at you. Everything is at ISO 1600 and there were some ludicrously slow shutter speeds (I think the record is hand held at 1/5 s (It’s a good thing I don’t drink ….. much).
As there were a large number of features high on the walls and ceilings I am afraid that there are a significant number of converging verticals and not quite square squares, but the beauty and skill of the original artists more than makes up fro my poor efforts. It was a 400 mile round trip to visit Monreale, but it was by far the highlight of the vacation.
There are more pictures HERE
Click on the image to see a larger version.
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