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Seal of the Gazetteer Bureau of Tourism & Exploration
Gazetteer Bureau
Bureau of Tourism & Exploration · Est. 1954 (fictional)
Palermo — Built on A Basilica. Vintage travel badge drawn in flat colour, Gazetteer Bureau.

Palermo

Built on A Basilica

Raised in 1185 on the site of a Byzantine basilica. The Bureau files the building under continuous occupancy and declines to date the foundations. The church was built by a Norman archbishop for a Norman king, in a city that had been Arab within living memory, and it shows all three in the same elevation. Later centuries added what they had. The Bureau has given up separating the layers and now records the building as a single entry, which is how it is seen.

DesignationArab-Norman See
Gazetted1185
Standing noticeBuilt on A Basilica
Issuing officeGazetteer Bureau of Tourism & Exploration
See it on 195 products — from €3,49

Coasters (set of 4)

← All 195 products

Palermo badge on a coasters (set of 4), white, front

€11,49

Payment, delivery and returns are handled by Spreadshirt, who is the seller of record. You have 30 days to contact their support — no reason needed. Returns & exchanges · Legal notice

Product details

Four coasters, glossy hardboard with cork drip mat. Dimensions: 3.8” x 3.8” x 1.2” (95 x 95 x 3mm)

  • Glossy fibreboard with cork drip mat
  • Dimensions: 3.8” x 3.8” x 1.2” (95 x 95 x 3mm)
  • Thickness: 3mm
  • Just wipe clean (not dishwasher-proof)
  • In stock. Printed once your order is placed.
  • Whatever the reason — you have 30 days to contact support.

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International City · Switzerland

The source image

The badge is drawn, not photographed. Each drawing works from a reference image in the public domain or under a free licence — a photochrom print, a photograph, an etching. Here is the one used for this destination, and why it was chosen.

The drawing follows an etching, not a photograph: Palermo Cathedral engraved by E. Rouargue after a drawing by Gilio. An engraving already works in lines and masses, which suits the badge's tracing better than a photograph does. The cathedral was raised in 1185 by Walter Ophamil, Norman archbishop of Palermo. The site was not empty: it held a Byzantine basilica, turned into a mosque under the emirate, then returned to Christian worship. It is that layering the badge points to in printing BUILT ON A BASILICA, and it is why the Bureau declines to date the foundations: 1185 holds for the building, not for the ground.

Palermo. Cattedrale (acquaforte)

Credit
Gilio, E. Rouargue
Held by
Wikimedia Commons
Licence
CC0

View the original consulted 2026-08-22

Sources

Every figure engraved on this badge is checked against a public source before it is used. Consultation dates are given.

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