Former Magione Convent, Palermo

Also known as the Church of the Holy Trinity. Together with the adjacent Cistercian abbey, the church was founded in 1191 by Matteo Ajello, chancellor of the Norman kingdom. In 1197, it was handed over to the Teutonic Knights Order and became the seat of the “Mansio,” that is, the order’s preceptor: hence the name Magione. The church is the last building constructed by the Normans in Palermo. It combines the essential geometric volumes of Fatimid derivation, found in the external masonry and facade, with an interior spatial layout of Nordic origin. Among the church’s artworks are: two 16th-century holy water fonts placed on either side of the entrance; the funeral monument of F. Perdicaro (d. 1576), likely by Vincenzo Gagini, positioned beneath a 15th-century stone Cross featuring the emblem of the Teutonic Knights; from the 16th century, a Virgin with Child alongside a blessing Christ, both from the Gagini workshop; a tabernacle from 1528 and a Madonna painted on board, a late Gothic marble triptych with a central Madonna with Child and St. Catherine. The 1953 Pietà by Campini is placed at the entrance in place of Vincenzo Gagini’s sculpture, destroyed in the bombings of World War II. Finally, the floor contains tombs of 15th-century Teutonic Knights, whose tomb slabs are exhibited in rooms adjoining the cloister. The cloister, truncated at the short sides and located—contrary to more usual practice—to the west of the church, is all that remains of the original Cistercian monastery. From a door to the left of the church facade, access is gained to the Chapel of St. Cecilia, notable for the artworks it houses: a large fresco of the Crucifixion, a fragment of a 13th-century fresco, and the red ochre Sinopia of the same crucifixion.