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Town
Twinning 
The Town
of San Gwann has establishing a twinning relationship with the Town
of Monreale in Sicily.
The agreement was signed by the two councils in 2003.
 Monreale, (contraction of monte-reale,
so-called from a palace built here by Roger I of Sicily) is a small
city in the province of Palermo in Sicily, Italy, on the slope of Monte Caputo (764 meters), overlooking the
beautiful and very fertile valley called "La Conca d'oro" (the Golden
Shell), famed for its orange, olive and almond trees, the produce
of which is exported in large quantities. The town has approximately
30,000 and is located 15 km south of Palermo. Monreale is
world-renowned for its cathedral, a dazzling mixture of Arab, Byzantine
and Norman artistic styles framed by traditional Romanesque
architecture, all combined in a perfect blend of the best that both the
Christian and Muslim worlds of the 12th century had to offer. The town,
which for
long was a mere village, owed its origin to the founding of a large
Benedictine monastery, with its church, the seat of the metropolitan
archbishop of Sicily. The splendid
cloister of the Benedictine abbey alone would make Monreale famous.  Located next to the
cathedral, these 228 columns, some with mosaic
inlay, each with a meticulously stone carved capital, enclose the
gardens of the cloister. The capitals themselves depict scenes in
Sicily's Norman history, complete with knights and kings. The style of
the Norman knight figures evokes that of the knights depicted in the
Bayeaux Tapestry, a chronicle of the Battle of Hastings. Historians
have determined the date of the introduction of heraldry (coats of
arms) in Sicily by the shields of the Monreale knight figures, which
lack any heraldic decoration.
 The
Cathedral of Monreale is the greatest of all the monuments of the
wealth and artistic taste of the Norman kings in northern Sicily.
It
was begun about 1170 by William II, and in 1182 the church, dedicated
to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, was, by a bull of Pope Lucius
III, elevated to the rank of a metropolitan cathedral. The
archiepiscopal palace and monastic buildings on the south side were of
great size and magnificence, and were surrounded by a massive precinct
wall, crowned at intervals by twelve towers. This has been mostly
rebuilt, and but little now remains except ruins of some of the towers,
a great part of the monks' dormitory and frater, and the splendid
cloister, completed about 1200.
The
history of Monreale can be summed up in the name of one man: King
William II "The Good." The last of the Norman Kings of Sicily was the
grandson of the illustrious Roger II. Prior to the construction of
Santa Maria la Nuova, it is believed Monreale was a tiny Saracen hamlet
named "Ba'lat," where local farmer's would gather to cart their produce
to the market, or "souk," down in Palermo. That outdoor market still
exists to this day and is known as Ballarò. It is possible that
Ballarò's name derives from an Arabic phrase meaning "Ba'lat
Market." During the Norman dominion, Ba'lat, soon to be renamed
Monreale, became a favorite hunting ground of the Hauteville monarchs.
In those days, deer, boar and wild cats still roamed Sicily, where
there were more forests than today, and falconry was popular among the
aristocracy.
Monreale
Cathedral also houses several royal tombs. King William II's mortal
remains rest in the white marble tomb dating from 1575. William's
father, King William I "the Bad" lies in the reddish porphyry tomb
which dates to the 12th century and is, presumably, his original tomb.
William II's mother, Margaret of Navarre, is also interred at Monreale.
Except
for some foundations and external walls, the cloister is the only part
of the monastery that has survived intact to the present. It is laid
out in a perfect square, measuring 47 by 47 meters on each side,
consisting of a covered walkway encircling the square garden. The walk
is buttressed by 104 pointed arches supported by 228 twin columns of
white marble. The capitals of the columns are an amazing variety of
meticulously sculpted refigurations of scenes from the Bible, lives of
the Saints, Norman knights in action, gargoyles, and floral motifs. The
crowning
glory of the cloister is the Arabic fountain in the southwest corner.
The fountain is almost a mini-cloister within the cloister, surrounded
by its own four-sided colonnade. The "belvedere" is also worth
visiting. Affording a panoramic view of Palermo, the Belvedere is
reached through a courtyard near the cloister. The entrance to the
Antevilla and the Belvedere is located at the southwest corner of the
piazza, passing through an archway. Proceed about twenty meters through
this courtyard to another archway which brings you to the Belvedere and
its spectacular view of Palermo and the Conca d'Oro, the valley below
Monreale. There is also a small museum on the north side of the
Belvedere, featuring works by contemporary Sicilian artists.
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