George of Antioch, admiral and chief minister of King Roger II, patronized the church. The foundation charter is dated 1143, and it was complete by 1151, the year he died. The article names no architect. The style is Norman-Arab-Byzantine, with a compact cross-in-square plan and later Baroque additions, including a Baroque facade on the piazza.
Its 12th-century mosaics are in the Byzantine style. They include Roger II crowned by Jesus, George at the feet of the Virgin, and Christ Pantokrator in the dome. Painted wooden beams at the dome base carry an Arabic inscription.
A Benedictine convent was attached to it in 1433 and 1434, and the nuns altered it from the 16th to the 18th century. Restoration work reopened it for worship in 2013. UNESCO inscribed it in 2015. It is a Byzantine-rite parish church.
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