All’origine dell’architettura catalana a Palermo: S. Maria in Baida

The S. Maria degli Angeli’s monastery, located on the slopes of Mount Cuccio, near Palermo, is one of the last testimonies of the Chiaramonte’s power. Founded on the last quarter of the 14th century by Manfredi III Chiaramonte († 1391), in compensation for the destruction of the Castellaccio of Monreale, a S. Martino alle Scale dependence, the abbey represents the passage from Palermo’s architectural heritage, also called chiaramontana, to a new tradition made by traditional elements with influences coming from the continent, particularly from the Hiberic peninsula. The differences between the architecture produced by the family of Palermo and innovations showed in the complex the role of Modica’s count was relocated, by some Historians, only to financier and the construction of the monastery was referred to the monks of S. Martino. Some elements, ignored before, relocated the construction of the structure under the will of Manfredi III: the monastery remained uncompleted after the fall of the Chiaramonte’s family, the massive presence of the coat of arms of the family is not an exterior seal of the financier, but the proof of the Manfredi’s will. The count lived for a long time in Messina and he was, for personal advantage, a sustainer of the Anjou becoming Admiral of Neapolitan court, lately he passed under the Aragonese insignia entering into close relations with the future king Martin I (1356-1409). The contacts with the two courts maybe had influenced his decision about the style of the monastery. The structure presents some details closest to Pedralbes monastery, built, from 1327, by the queen Elisenda of Montcada (1292-1364) and the chapel of St. Martí in the St. Mary of Valldecrist charterhouse, built in the 1385 by Martin I.