The regal palace is the handsomest in the town.  It contains a gothic chapel, richly decorated; the walls are entirely covered with paintings in mosaic, of which the drawings do not display remarkable taste, and the ceiling is over-crowded with decorations and arabesques.  An ancient chandelier, in the form of a pillar, made of beautiful marble and also covered with arabesques, stands beside the pulpit.  On holydays an immense candle is put in this candlestick and lighted.

I wished to enter this chapel, but was refused admittance until I had taken off my hat, like the men, and carried it in my hand.  This custom prevails in several churches of Palermo.  The space in front of the palace resembles a garden, from the number of avenues and beds of flowers with which it is ornamented.  Second in beauty is the palace of the senate, but it cannot be compared with that at Messina.

The town contains several very handsome squares, in all of which we find several statues and fountains.

Foremost among the churches the Cathedral must be mentioned; its gothic facade occupies one entire side of a square.  A spacious entrance-hall, with two monuments, not executed in a very fine style of art, leads into the interior of the church, which is of considerable extent, but built in a very simple style.  The pillars, two of which always stand together, and the four royal monuments at the entrance, are all of Egyptian granite.  The finest part of the church is the chapel of St. Rosalia on the right, not far from the high altar; both its walls are decorated with large bas-reliefs in marble, beautifully executed:  one of these represents the banishment of the plague, and the finding of St. Rosalia’s bones.  A splendid pillar of lapis-lazuli, said to be the largest and finest specimen of this stone in existence, stands beside the high altar.  The two basins with raised figures at the entrance of the church also deserve notice.  The left side of the square is occupied by the episcopal palace, a building of no pretensions.

Santa Theresia is a small church, containing nothing remarkable except a splendid bas-relief in marble, representing the Holy Family, which an Englishman once offered to purchase for an immense sum.  The neighbouring church of St. Pieta, on the contrary, can be called large and grand.  The facades are ornamented with pillars of marble, the altar is richly gilt, and handsome frescoes deck the ceiling.  St. Domenigo, another fine church, possesses, my cicerone assured me, the largest organ in the world.  If he had said the greatest he had seen, I could readily have believed him.