“It’s pure magnificence”: Italy’s largest medieval mosaics restored

On a hill overlooking town of Palermo, Sicily, stands a lesser-known gem of Italian artwork: the Cathedral of Monreale.

Constructed within the twelfth century underneath Norman rule, it homes the biggest Byzantine-style mosaics in Italy, the second on the earth after these of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

Immediately, this UNESCO World Heritage web site has undergone in depth restoration to revive it to its former glory.

Monreale’s mosaics had been meant to impress, humble and encourage the customer who walked via the central nave, very like Constantinople, the capital of the surviving Roman Empire to the east.

They lengthen over greater than 6,400 sq. meters and include roughly 2.2 kg of strong gold.

The restoration lasted greater than a yr and through this time the cathedral was remodeled right into a type of building web site, with a maze of scaffolding erected on the altar and the transept.

Native specialists from the Italian Ministry of Tradition carried out a collection of interventions, beginning with the elimination of a thick layer of mud that had amassed on the mosaics through the years.

Subsequent, they repaired some tiles that had misplaced their glaze and gold leaf, making them appear to be black dots when seen from beneath.

Lastly, they went to the areas the place the tiles had been coming off the wall and glued them.

Engaged on the mosaics was a problem and an excellent duty, says Father Nicola Gaglio.

He has been a priest right here for 17 years and has adopted the restoration intently, a bit like a fearful father.

“The staff approached this work virtually tiptoe,” he tells me.

“Typically there have been unexpected issues they usually needed to droop operations whereas they discovered an answer.

“For instance, once they bought to the ceiling, they realized that it was as soon as lined with a layer of varnish that had turned yellowish. They needed to peel it off, actually, like cling movie.”

The mosaics had been final partially restored in 1978, however this time the intervention was a lot broader in scope and included the substitute of the outdated lighting system.

“There was a really outdated system. The sunshine was weak, the vitality prices had been exorbitant and it on no account did justice to the fantastic thing about the mosaics,” explains Matteo Cundari.

He’s the Nation Supervisor of Zumtobel, the corporate chargeable for putting in the brand new lights.

“The principle problem was to focus on the mosaics and create one thing that meets the completely different wants of the cathedral,” he provides.

“We additionally wished to create a totally reversible system, which might be changed in 10 or 15 years with out damaging the constructing.”

This primary part of labor value 1.1 million euros. A second, centered on the central nave, is deliberate quickly.

I ask Father Gaglio what it feels prefer to see the scaffolding lastly come down and the mosaics shine of their new mild. He laughs and shrugs.

“If you see it, you are overwhelmed with admiration and you may’t actually take into consideration something. It is pure magnificence,” he says.

“It’s a duty to be the guardian of such a world heritage. This world wants magnificence, as a result of it reminds us of the nice in humanity, of what it means to be a person and a feminine.”