RESTORATION, STRUCTURAL RENOVATION AND EXPANSION WORKS
Client: University of Palermo
As highlighted in the description of the factory, the current configuration of the Martorana complex is the consequence of the stratification of architectural structures built on top of each other over the centuries.
The restoration project of the entire complex aims at the reconfiguration of the surviving elements of the original structure, today unrecognizable and distorted in terms of forms and functions, whose spatiality is currently being compromised due to transformations and degradation.
The restoration project is aimed at the recovery of the monumental complex, with an extremely articulated planimetric development, but currently unrecognizable, including the former Benedictine monastery of the Martorana, remains of the so-called Casa Martorana from the Norman era, partly built on the walls of the Cassaro and of the tower of the south-eastern corner, and portions of bodies added in different periods, to compose a block between via Maqueda, via Calderai, vicolo Bellini and Piazza Bellini.
The restoration project of the entire complex aims at the reconfiguration of the surviving elements of the original structure, through a reading and visit itinerary on the first floor, highlighting:
– the medieval alley, with the Martorana courtyard and its architectural remains;
– the painted wooden ceilings of rooms 1 and 2 of the parlor and of the fifteenth-century portico connecting with the church of the Admiral;
– the refectory of the monastery, whose spatiality is currently compromised due to transformations, where originally was the church of S. Simone from 1195;
– the original nucleus of the house of Adelicia, later the church of S. Maria la Nuova,
– the hall with iwan, room with two curled up columns, with composite capitals, and original barrel vaulted roof;
– the bell tower and the observatory;
– the monastery garden and fountain courtyard;
– the relationship with the Martorana church.
The categories of intervention are:
– structural rehabilitation;
– restoration of the valuable elements of the monumental complex;
– construction of a new study room, which defines and completes the space of the courtyard on the first floor;
– adaptation of services and creation of new ones;
– elimination of architectural barriers;
– construction of technological systems.
