Church of Magione in Palermo
The Church of the Holy Trinity of Palermo , better known as the Chiesa della Magione , stands on the southern side of a vast open space formed following the air raids of 1943. represents one of the last products of the Sicilian medieval architecture of Fatimite imprint and shows, even if in a reduced key, the same iconographic scheme of the cathedrals of Palermo and Monreale.
The church, together with the adjoining monastery, was eventually founded from the 12th century by Matteo D'Aiello, chancellor of Tancredi, the last Norman king. The church was dedicated to the Holy Trinity as a form of response to those doctrines considered heretical, very widespread at that time, which attacked the concept of "Trinity".
The name of "Magione" refers to what happened in 1197. A at that time the Swabian Emperor Henry VI expelled the Cistercians from the church and granted the buildings to the order of the Teutonic knights. From this moment the church took on the title of "mansio theutonicorum", hence the name Magione. The knights overturned the original architectural structure of the entire building, creating new chapels, enlarging the convent and building a hospital for German pilgrims coming or going to the Holy Land.
The church, built by workers and artists of Islamic origins , was probably built by incorporating a pre-existing religious structure. The exterior features a rich variety of decorative motifs that recall the Arab world. The façade is made up of three ogival portals with recessed ferrules. In the upper part of the facade there are five windows, three of which are blind in the center and two luciferae on the sides. In the highest order of the facade there is another window placed in axis with the main portal. The rear part of the building ends in three apses, of which the central one is designed by well protruding intertwined arches while in the smaller ones these are barely hinted at and the motif of the blind windows with recessed ferrules is repeated on the sides.
The layout of the church is of a basilica type with three naves separated by large ogival arches supported by monolithic bare columns of different heights, with capitals with stylized plant motifs different in shape and decoration. Inside the church there are a few works of great value: a Pietà by Archimede Campini from 1953, a holy water stoup from the sixteenth century, a blessing Christ from the Gagini workshop and a stone cross with the emblem of the Teutonic Knights.
