Un’architettura in divenire: il campanile maggiore della cattedrale di Palermo (XIV-XIX secolo)

Place of permanence, but sometimes also of sudden changes, facilitated among other things by the intrinsic vulnerability to the towers, or also example of stratifications that hold together the memory of the previous time and the adherence to current languages and techniques, the bell tower in many cases reflects changes and discontinuities in the dominant architectural culture in a precise urban context, in different moments of its history, sometimes assuming changing values over time.The main bell tower of Palermo cathedral represents an eloquent example of this. Permanence and reconstruction are the terms, apparently antithetical, which synthesize a troubled construction history, cadenced by collapses, demolitions and reconstructions, moved by different intentions, in a chronological span of time between the late Middle Ages and the beginning of Modern Age, addressed in this article.