Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio, known to everyone in Palermo as La Martorana, is a Norman church of the twelfth century that was founded in 1143 by George of Antioch, the admiral who served King Roger II. George was a Greek Christian from Syria, who had risen through the Arab administration of North Africa before moving to Sicily, and the church shows his taste, with Byzantine mosaics, Arabic inscriptions and a Norman bell tower. It was one of the first monuments of the Arab-Norman style, and is on the UNESCO list.
The interior is a small jewel box of gold. Christ Pantocrator looks down from the dome, surrounded by angels, and the mosaics also show the admiral himself kneeling before the Virgin Mary and Roger II being crowned by Christ, a striking portrait of how power was understood. The church was later altered in the baroque period, and some of the mosaics are lost, but the early ones are among the finest in Sicily. The name Martorana comes from a nearby convent, founded by a noblewoman, whose nuns gave the church its popular name.
The nuns also gave Sicily a sweet, frutta martorana, marzipan shaped and painted to look like real fruit, in bright colours. They are sold in pastry shops across Palermo, especially around the Day of the Dead on 2 November, when children are told that the dead leave gifts, and they look so real that people bite into them by mistake. A small bag of them makes a good gift.
The church stands on Piazza Bellini in the old centre, next to the Teatro Massimo and a street of cafés, and getting there by bike is not easy. The lanes are tight, the traffic is intense, and parking is scarce, so leave the bike in a garage and walk. Fuel stations are on the outer roads, not in the centre. The church often closes at lunchtime, and dress rules apply, with knees and shoulders covered. Come in the morning, when the light enters the dome and the golden mosaics seem to move.