San Giovanni degli Eremiti (St John of the Hermits) is an ancient former monastic

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

located on Via Benedettini #19 in the ancient quarter of Albergaria of the city of Palermo, region of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, Italy. It is about two blocks south from the Palazzo dei Normanni, adjacent to the church of San Giorgio in Kemonia. While the interior is virtually devoid of decoration or furnishings, the red Norman-Byzantine domes, the medieval cloister ruins, and garden make this small church a symbol of ancient Palermo.

History

A church and a Benedictine monastery existed at the site date prior to the 6th century.

Pope Gregory the Great Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregoria ...

is said to have patronized its establishment. The seventh-century

Pope Agatho Pope Agatho (died January 681) served as the bishop of Rome from 27 June 678 until his death. He heard the appeal of Wilfrid of York, who had been displaced from his see by the division of the archdiocese ordered by Theodore of Canterbury. D ...

took orders at this monastery. It is said that the Saracen conquerors closed or razed the monastery, perhaps converting the church to a mosque. After the

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

conquest, circa 1136, the site was restored by Roger II of Sicily to Benedictine Benedictine monks of Saint William of Vercelli . The church was dedicated to St

John the Evangelist John the Evangelist ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης, Iōánnēs; Aramaic: ܝܘܚܢܢ; Ge'ez: ዮሐንስ; ar, يوحنا الإنجيلي, la, Ioannes, he, יוחנן cop, ⲓⲱⲁⲛⲛⲏⲥ or ⲓⲱ̅ⲁ) is the name traditionally given ...

. It is not clear why the church gained the tag of ''Eremiti''. While it is possible that it refers to the cloistered Benedictine monks (hermits, from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''eremìtes'', monks), but it could be that the name was derived from the nearby church of San Mercurio, known as ''Ermes'' in Greek. In the 19th century, under the guidance of Giuseppe Patricolo, director of the Royal office for the conservation of monuments of Sicily, the structures were restored aiming for his perspective of their original medieval appearance.

Architecture

The church is notable for its brilliant red domes, which show clearly the persistence of Arab influences in Sicily at the time of its reconstruction in the 12th century, the Arab-Norman culture. In her 1882 ''Diary of an Idle Woman in Sicily'', Frances Elliot described it as "... totally oriental... it would fit well in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

or Damascus". However, the red color of the domes are not original, as they were painted in this color by Patricolo who found pieces of red plaster on the domes and therefore decided to paint all the domes in red. The church lies with a flank on a square construction. The church is on the Latin Cross plan with a nave and two aisles and three apses. Each of the square spans is surmounted by a dome. The presbytery, ending with a niche, has also a dome. The cloister, enriched by a luxurious garden, is the best preserved part of the ancient monastery. It has notable small double columns with capitals decorated by vegetable motifs, which support ogival arches. It also includes an Arab cistern.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:San Giovanni Degli Eremiti 12th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Giovanni degli Eremiti Arab-Norman architecture in Palermo Monasteries in Sicily Norman architecture in Italy Churches with Norman architecture Gothic architecture in Sicily World Heritage Sites in Italy Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale

History

Architecture

See also

References