The Cathedral

Work was started in 1172, Williams II conceived the vast and severe complex as a single, organic unit composed of church, convent and royal palace. He assigned in to the Benedectine monks from Cava dei Tirreni to whom he also granted privileges and estates, constituting a powerful archbishopric with tha papal bull “Licit Domunus” signed by Lucius III in 1183.

The two towers, flanking the external façade, are original and the completion of the bell tower (on the left) was executed in a later period by Cardinal Ippolito dè Medici.

Its bronze doors, made by Bonanno Pisano in 1186, are decorated with a series of panels representing stories from the old and new testament; behind them, the interior reveals, in its solemn, severe splendour, all the magnificence of the “basilica” erected as a grandiose, although human symbol of the eternal and immortal glory of God and the Norman Monarchy. Perhaps foreseeing the decline of its dynasty, it wanted to leave a memorable testimony of its power in what has been defined the most beautiful church in the world.