Glossy paint is not needed when you have a door made by an artist. I’d marked down Cattedrale di San Lorenzo as a place to visit in Trapani. Unfortunately, when we went there, the doors were firmly shut. Although we missed what, by all accounts, is a marvellous baroque church, there was bit of good in that. There were no tourists, and we could take photos of the stunning gates. There are four of them; three in the gallery below, and one in the featured photo.



I had to search a bit to figure out the history of these gates. Bear with me as I bring you up to date. The church dates from the 14th century CE, and was made a parish in the 15th century, and a cathedral in the middle of the 19th century. What you see today was a restoration by Giovanni Biaggio Amico in the mid-18th century. The bronze and wrought iron gates were made by Ennio Tesei in 1990 and inaugurated the same year.


“What a bother,” said The Family, and set off to find something to eat. I followed, but stopped at another grand door on the same street. I could not figure out what the purpose of the building was. But it was grand, sporting lots of ornate balconies, wall decorations like the clock you see above, and many plaster medallions. Probably baroque period was my guess.


Elsewhere doors were more modern and suited for Meta’s ancient photo app (of course, no one posts there any longer, since it is clearly nicer to make a 90 second video of a door and post it at a rival). These two doors stood paces from each other on a path which led one storey higher up and facing the sea. It was a lovely walk, and not only because there were so many doors.




















