Editing Monreale (section)

==Main sights== 
{{travel guide|section|date=March 2022}}
[[File:Monreale_(3759364848).jpg|240px|thumb|Benedictine Monastery.]] 
[[File:Dedication mosaic - Cathedral of Monreale - Italy 2015 (crop).JPG|240px|thumb|[[William II of Sicily|William II]] offering the [[Monreale Cathedral]] to the [[Virgin Mary]], in the cathedral.]]
[[File:Monreale Cloitre1.jpg|240px|thumb|The cloister of the abbey of Monreale.]]

===The Cathedral===
{{main|Monreale Cathedral}}
The cathedral of Monreale is one of the greatest extant examples of [[Norman architecture]]. It was begun in [[1170s in architecture|1174]] by [[William II of Sicily|William II]] and completed four years later. In 1182 the church, dedicated to the [[Nativity of Mary|Nativity of the Virgin Mary]], was, by a bull of Pope [[Lucius III]], elevated to the rank of a [[Metropolitan bishop|metropolitan cathedral]].<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|wstitle=Monreale|volume=18|page=736|inline=1}}</ref>

The church is a national monument of Italy and one of the most important attractions of Sicily. Its size is 102 metres long and 47 meters wide. The façade is characterized by two large towers (one partially destroyed by lightning in 1807) and a portal with [[Romanesque sculpture|Romanesque]] bronze doors decorated by [[Bonanno Pisano]]. The interior is on the [[Latin cross]] plan, divided by ogival arcades, and features fresco cycles executed during the reigns of William II and [[Tancred of Sicily]] (c. 1194). The [[cloister]] has 228 small columns, each with different decorations influenced by Provençal, Burgundian, Arab and Salerno medieval art.

===Other sights===
*''Castellaccio'' ("Bad Castle"), an example of a fortified convent on the Monte Caputo, at 764&nbsp;m above sea level. It was built in the 12th century by King William II together with the Cathedral and the annexed monastery. It measures c. 80 x 30 m on an irregular plan with four towers on the western side, a middle tower and an entrance tower on the eastern side.
*[[Abbey church of San Martino delle Scale]], founded in the 6th century AD. It is on the  [[Latin cross]] plan with a dome, a choir with paintings by [[Paolo De Matteis]] (1727), two small side [[apse]]s, chapels in the [[transept]] and ten chapels in each of the [[aisle]]s. The interior was decorated in 1602 with stuccoes. The baptismal font near the [[sacristy]] is from 1396.
*Church of Collegiata (16th-19th centuries)
*Church of Santa Ciriaca
*Church of San Silvestro