Legend of William the Good
José Luiz - CC4.0
The legend of William the Good tells the reason why the king of Sicily decided to build the Cathedral of Monreale.
Legend has it that, one night in 1171, William the Good was in Monreale for a hunting trip, at a certain point he fell asleep and fell asleep under a carob tree. While he was sleeping, Our Lady appeared to him and told him that a great treasure was hidden under the tree where he was: his father's war booty. She invited him to dig and build a temple dedicated to her in that very place. The Madonna disappeared and Guglielmo woke up. He immediately ordered his subjects to uproot the carob and dig, after making a huge hole the king found a huge treasure. The king immediately called the best engineers, architects, mosaicists, masons, carpenters, marble workers, cabinet makers, thus starting the construction of the cathedral, the Archbishop's Palace and the cloister, incredibly complete works already only ten years later.
According to another theory, the construction of the cathedral is due to a much less noble reason, namely the will of William II to compete with the Cathedral of Palermo to assert his superiority.
