The cloister of Santa Maria la Nuova is the cloister of the old Benedictine monastery of Monreale, beside the cathedral. It was built at the end of the twelfth century and is a Romanesque structure on a square plan, 47 metres on each side, with a portico of pointed arches with double mouldings. The arches rest on paired columns, decorated alternately: some carved with arabesques, others inlaid with mosaic.
What to see
The capitals are carved with scenes from the Old and New Testaments: original sin and the expulsion from Paradise, Cain and Abel, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, the story of Samson, the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, the Massacre of the Innocents. Alongside are scenes of hunting and grape harvest, warriors fighting, real and fantastic animals, even the sacrifice of Mithras. On one capital King William II offers the model of the cathedral to the Virgin. In the Genesis scenes links with Burgundian and Provençal sculpture can be recognised.
In the southern corner a square enclosure, with three arches on each side, surrounds a fountain: the water comes from a column carved in the form of a stylised palm trunk, in thin jets, from human and lion mouths. The bases of the columns are carved too: leaves, rosettes, lions' paws, frogs and lizards.
Visiting
Opening times, tickets and access to the cloister should be checked on the spot or through the official channels of the monumental complex.
Our editors' tip
Around the fountain, the capitals of the four small corner columns show the farm labours that symbolise the months: winter ones to the south, spring to the east, summer to the north, autumn to the west. Then look for the capital with the acrobat, whose pose recalls the Trinacria, the symbol of Sicily.
