Description
The Church of Santa Maria di Mili is a Norman church with a former Basilian monastery, on the bank of the Mili stream near Mili San Pietro, about 10 kilometers from the center of Messina: one of the oldest surviving Norman buildings in Sicily.
The most remarkable part is the end with the apses, topped by three small hemispherical domes, a larger one in the middle and two smaller ones at the sides, shaped in a way that brings Islamic art to mind. From the outside you can see only the Romanesque central apse.
It was built by order of the Great Count Roger around 1090, perhaps where a Byzantine monastery once stood. In 1092 he buried his son Jordan here, killed in battle at Syracuse, and entrusted the church to Basilian monks: Jordan's tombstone is in the Regional Museum of Messina.
The abbey was one of the most important in medieval Sicily; in 1542 Charles V handed it over to the Great Hospital of Messina. In the 16th century the church was lengthened, with a new facade and a raised roof.
The most remarkable part is the end with the apses, topped by three small hemispherical domes, a larger one in the middle and two smaller ones at the sides, shaped in a way that brings Islamic art to mind. From the outside you can see only the Romanesque central apse.
It was built by order of the Great Count Roger around 1090, perhaps where a Byzantine monastery once stood. In 1092 he buried his son Jordan here, killed in battle at Syracuse, and entrusted the church to Basilian monks: Jordan's tombstone is in the Regional Museum of Messina.
The abbey was one of the most important in medieval Sicily; in 1542 Charles V handed it over to the Great Hospital of Messina. In the 16th century the church was lengthened, with a new facade and a raised roof.