San  Giovanni  Degli  Eremiti

One of the best known Norman monuments, the church of San Giovanni degli Eremiti was built by Roger II in 1136, on the site of a pre-existing Gregorian monastery. The clean-cut square building, with domes standing out above it, is clearly a Muslim element (the qubba), of which other architectural examples exist in Palermo, testifying to the employment of Arab craftsmen for its construction. The small late-Norman cloister, with an Arab cistern in the middle, was part of the original Benedictine monastery; it has little round arches supported by fine paired columns.