The economic, commercial and mercantile centre was located near the Small Harbour (Marina Piccola), where the bishop's seat was based for a brief time before it was transferred to the Citadel on account of frequent attacks.

The return of Catholic control spurred the construction of a series of splendid Norman cathedrals in Sicily, subsequently renovated and repaired as a result of later events (mostly earthquakes).

On 24 September 1131, Ugone, Archbishop of Messina, promoted the two monasteries of Patti and Lipari to a bishopric, in accordance with a papal bull of Antipope Anacletus II, on account of the large amount of tribute assigned to them by Count Roger.

In 1399 Pope Boniface IX (Pietro Tomasello-Cybo), split Lipari and Patti into two separate dioceses, with the consent of Martin I of Sicily, on account of the distance and difficulty of the sea crossing between them.

The building was expanded between 1450 and 1515 with an artistic trussed wooden ceiling, but was burnt in July 1544 after an attack by the Ottoman corsair Hayreddin Barbarossa.

In 1516 Charles V inherited an array of Spanish titles including naples, Sardinia and Sicily and led a campaign against Barbarossa, who retreated to Africa in 1535.

After that, reconstruction work began in Lipari: fortifications of the citadel were improved, the cathedral was rebuilt with barrel vaults as a living symbol of the Islanders' Christian faith.

In 1728, the silver statue of the patron Bartholomew was created, as well as the wooden altar to the left of the apse, in thanksgiving for his protection during the 1693 Sicily earthquake, in which Lipari was unscathed.

Work also began on the facade of pale Vesuvian stone in 1772, intended to give a delicate contrast and sense of dynamic harmony with the interior of the duomo.

Monsignor Angelo Paino streamlined the pastoral system of all the subordinate churches and secured a decree on 28 October 1910 which instituted the first sixteen autonomous parishes in the diocese, one of which was that of the cathedral.

Four columnar pilasters surmounted by capitals and moulding give a vertical dimension to the appearance and support the upper cornice with its grand central arch.

According to the oral tradition, this commemorates in occasion after a terrible famine in 1672, when Lipari was struck by a storm, and French vessel agreed to bring some grain and donate the load to the islanders for free.

After the Arab Invasions, the island of Lipari remained uninhabited and when the Normans settled there they found only a few villages of Greek speaking inhabitants in the interior.

The Abbot Ambrogio, head of the monks, directed the construction of the Norman cloisters which were completed around 1131 in the reign of Roger II and follow the Clunian Benedictine model.

It has only recently been uncovered, in 1978, by Luigi Pastore who noticed some capitals while investigating the area around the cathedral and immediately informed the Soprintendeze for archaeology and heritage.

Fragments of the ancient pavement are stored in the local Museo archeologico regionale eoliano, along with other material recovered during excavations, and a photographic reproduction of the "Constitutum" of Abbot Ambrogio in the Norman period.

Bartholomew the Apostle, also called Nathaniel Bartalmai, a name with means "Gift of God, son of the field, who moves the water," was martyred in Asia.

Legend has it that the pagans were enraged by the pious veneration which the Christians offered to the holy martyr, seized the corpse, locked it in a lead casket and cast it in the sea.

The sarcophagus was recovered and transported secretly or miraculously to Lipari, where the first Aeolian Christians built a great church to house his body.

In Aeolian art, the saint is depicted half naked with his skin, the symbol of his martyrdom, on his right shoulder, a palm in his right hand, a knife in his left and a crown on his head.