Church of San Giovanni degli Eremiti
The Church of San Giovanni degli Eremiti in Palermo is one of the symbolic monuments of the city.
The church was built in the Norman period, around 1130, under the reign of Roger II, and was restored in radical way in 1882 by Giuseppe Patricolo.
The constructive module of the church is that of a cubic structure surmounted by a dome of intense red color . In the structure of the church this module is repeated five times, twice in the spans of the single nave and three times in the transept. The juxtaposition of the square, which represents the earth, to the circle, which represents the sky, recurs both in the Fatimite Islamic culture and in the Byzantine one. The interior is bare and collected.
Attached to the church is the cloister , probably from the 13th century. It has a rectangular shape, with pointed arches on paired columns.
The red domes and the soaring palms immerse the visitor in an oriental atmosphere. This vision is the legacy of the Arab domination that transformed this 6th century complex into a mosque.
