Sights in Palermo
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Fontana Pretoria
At the civic heart of Palermo, a crowd of imposing churches and buildings surrounds the ornate Fontana Pretoria. This huge fountain fills the piazza with its tiered basins, supporting the sculptures, rippling in concentric circles. The city bought the fountain in 1573; however, the flagrant nudity of the provocative nymphs proved too much for Sicilian church-goers attending Mass at the grandly formal San Giuseppe dei Teatini, and they prudishly dubbed it the Fountain of Shame.
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Chiesa di San Domenico
The Chiesa di San Domenico lies Off Via Roma. It was built in 1640 following the design of architect Andrea Cirincione; the façade was added in 1726 after the buildings that once occupied the square were demolished to give the church some space.
The church has been the place where Italian VIPs have been buried since the Middle Ages; among the tombs and cenotaphs of notable Sicilians, you'll find the names of parliamentarian Ruggero Settimo, painter Pietro Novelli, and the former Italian prime minister Francesco Crispi.
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Cathedral
The Cathedral is an extraordinary (and enormous) feast of geometric patterns, ziggurat crenulations, majolica cupolas and blind arches. The interior, although impressive in scale, is a marble shell, a sadly un-exotic resting place for the royal Norman tombs. The crypt and treasury contain various jewels belonging to Queen Costanza of Aragón, a bejewelled Norman crown and, most bizarrely, a tooth extracted from Santa Rosalia, Palermo’s patron saint.
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Orto Botanico
Laid out by Léon Dufourny and Venanzio Marvuglia, the gorgeous Orto Botanico is a tropical paradise, with massive fig trees, tall palms and dazzling hibiscus bushes. There is an avenue of the bizarre-looking bottle, soap and cinnamon trees, as well as coffee trees, papaya plants and sycamores. It's a real haven of silence and fascinating botany, with a large herb garden that focuses on Mediterranean plants. Beware the mosquitos at dusk though.
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Quattro Canti
The busy intersection of Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Via Maqueda marks the Quattro Canti, the centre of the oldest part of town, neatly dividing the historic nucleus into four manageable sectors.
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Teatro Massimo
The grand neoclassical Teatro Massimo took more than 20 years to complete. Nowadays the theatre is an iconic Palermo landmark and has become a symbol of the triumph and tragedy of the city. Appropriately, the closing scene of The Godfather: Part III, with its visually stunning juxtaposition of high culture, low crime, drama and death, was filmed here.
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Giardino Garibaldi
Surrounded on all sides by elegant palazzi, gentrified Piazza Marina (M0154) is Palermo's quietest piazza, and its small Giardino Garibaldi encloses Palermo's oldest tree, a venerable 25m-high, 150-year-old ficus benjamin. Dedicated to Garibaldi, the square has witnessed its fair share of bloody executions.
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Teatro Politeama Garibaldi
Teatro Politeama Garibaldi is Palermo’s second theatre. Designed by architect Giuseppe Damiani Almeyda between 1867 and 1874, it has the same imposing circular layout as the Teatro Massimo and features a striking facade resembling a triumphal arch topped by a huge bronze chariot.
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Chiesa di San Cataldo
The Chiesa di San Cataldo almost looks Eastern European but, disappointingly, is almost bare inside. Its main point of interest to visitors lies in the Arab-Norman style of its exterior: the dusky-pink bijoux domes, solid square shape, blind arcading and delicate tracery.
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Chiesa di San Giuseppe dei Teatini
In the southwestern corner of the Quattro Canti is the Chiesa di San Giuseppe dei Teatini, topped by a soaring cupola. The monumental interior is baroque at its brashest, and has been lovingly restored after it suffered substantial damage during WWII.
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Villa Giulia
Villa Giulia in La Kalsa is a welcome relief from the claustrophobic streets, although the formal planting scheme of the park is severely challenged by the rampant fecundity of the island.
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Museo Diocesiano
The Museo Diocesiano houses an important and rather extensive collection of artworks from the cathedral and churches destroyed during WWII; these include paintings, and marble, fresco and mosaic fragments. There's a friendly guide who will explain the significance of each piece (they are largely unmarked), though she speaks Italian and French only.
The ground floor holds 15th-century frescoes, along with Byzantine paintings and icons, among which the most beautiful is the 1171 Madonna della Perla, rescued from the now-no-more church of San Nicoló Reale.
Seek out the room dedicated to the 17th-century Sicilian painter Pietro Novelli (1603-47), who was one of the region's…
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Cappella Palatina
On the middle level of the three-tiered loggia is Palermo’s premier tourist attraction, the Cappella Palatina, designed by Roger II in 1130. Restoration work completed in July 2008 (after a small earthquake in 2002 damaged the structure) has returned the chapel to its original splendour, and the walls once again swarm with figures in glittering, dreamy gold. These exquisite mosaics recount tales of the Old and New Testaments, capturing expression, detail and movement with extraordinary grace. The harmony of the chapel’s decoration is further enhanced by the inlaid marble floors and the wooden muqarnas ceiling, a masterpiece of honeycomb carving in Arabic style that…
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Catacombe dei Cappuccini
The morbid Catacombe dei Cappuccini is home to the mummified bodies and skeletons of some 8000 Palermitans who died between the 17th and 19th centuries. Earthly power, sex, religion and professional status are still rigidly distinguished; men and women occupy separate corridors and within the women’s area there’s a 1st-class section for virgins. Dressed in their Sunday best, the corpses’ clothes have survived better than some of the bodies themselves. This is possibly not a place to take the kiddies. From Piazza Independenza, it’s a 15-minute walk; alternatively, catch any bus running along Via Cappuccini to the corner of Via Pindemonte, then walk one block to Piazza…
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Chiesa di San Francesco d'Assisi
The Piazza San Francesco d'Assisi (M0151) is Palermo's picture-perfect piazza, overlooked by the charming Chiesa di San Francesco d'Assisi , which features a fine rose window and a flamboyant Gothic portal; it's understandably popular on the wedding circuit. The church's most interesting feature is the rare arch of the Cappella Mastrantonio (Chapel of Mastrantonio), carved in 1468 by Francesco Laurana and Pietro da Bonitate, and one of the only true examples of Renaissance art in Palermo.
The church also showcases sculptures by the Gagini family, Giambattista Ragusa and Giacomo Serpotta.
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Palazzo Mirto
Just off Piazza Marina is one of the only palazzi open to the public, Palazzo Mirto . Considering Palermitan extravagances, the palazzo is actually pretty modest. Its walls are covered in acres of silk and velvet wallpaper, and vast embroidered wall hangings, while its floors are paved in coloured marbles and mosaics.
The real extravagance, however, is the tiny Salottino Cinese (Chinese Salon) full of black lacquer, silken wallpaper and a rather conceited ceiling painting of European aristos viewing the room from above.
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La Martorana
Twelfth-century La Martorana was originally planned as a mosque by King Roger’s Syrian Emir, George of Antioch. In 1433 the church was donated to an aesthetically challenged order of Benedictine nuns who demolished most of the stunning mosaics executed by Greek craftsmen and replaced them with gaudy baroque ornamentation, thus destroying the church’s cohesive integrity. The few remaining original mosaics include two magnificent portraits of George of Antioch and Roger II that are well worth seeking out.
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Museo Archeologico Regionale
North along Via Roma, the Museo Archeologico Regionale, in a Renaissance monastery, displays some of Sicily’s most valuable Greek and Roman artefacts. The galleries surround a gracious courtyard and display treasures from Selinunte such as a series of decorative friezes depicting classical scenes, full of humour and energy. In one, Perseus gleefully beheads the Gorgon, and the Cercopes twins, hanging upside down, laugh at the sunburnt bum of Hercules. There’s good wheelchair access.
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Parco della Favorita
About 3km to the north of the city centre is Palermo's biggest park, the Parco della Favorita. Ferdinand purchased the land in 1799 and commissioned the original layout, and he lived in the extraordinary Chinese pagoda palace, the Palazzina Cinese, with his wife during his exile from Naples. Originally built as Ferdinand's hunting lodge by Venanzio Marvuglia, the palazzina is an odd but charming mixture of Chinese and neoclassical styles (if you can imagine such a thing).
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Museo Etnografico Pitrè
The Palazzina Cinese houses the Museo Etnografico Pitrè, Sicily's best ethnographic museum. It holds over 5000 objects, including traditional costumes, pottery, puppets, votive offerings, torture instruments and a model of the 18th-century Carrozza di Santa Rosalia (a massive cart used to carry the effigy of the saint through the streets during the Festino di Santa Rosalia).
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Porta Nuova
Next to the palace is the Porta Nuova, built to celebrate the arrival of Carlos V in Palermo in 1535 after a victory over the Tunisians. Designed in the mannerist style, the gate was partially destroyed by lightning in 1667 and rebuilt with the addition of the conical top. More than 400 years later, it still serves as a demarcation line between the old and new city.
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Chiesa di Santa Zita
The 14th-century Chiesa di Santa Zita church is named after the tired patron saint of domestic servants. The church's funerary chapels are particularly lavish, thanks to the clever idea of the Dominican priests who acquired the church in the 16th century to allow rich families to bury their dead here, thus collecting income for the priests' monastery.
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Civica Galleria d’Arte Moderna
Civica Galleria d’Arte Moderna is housed in a 15th-century palazzo, which metamorphosed into a convent in the 17th century. The wide-ranging collection of 19th- and 20th-century Sicilian art is beautifully displayed, and there’s a regular program of modern-art exhibitions here, as well as an excellent bookshop and gift shop.
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Chiesa di Santa Caterina
Closing off the eastern side of the square is the Chiesa di Santa Caterina, Palermo's finest baroque church. Belonging to a Dominican monastery, the church is held in trust by seven very old nuns, who kept the doors of the church shut for 14 years, finally opening them again for visitors on Christmas Eve 2006. The entrance is on Piazza Bellini.
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Il Capo Cathedral Treasury
Inside the Il Capo Cathedral is a magnificent treasury, whose most extraordinary exhibits are the fabulous 13th-century crown of Constance of Aragon (wife of Frederick II), made by local craftsmen in fine gold filigree and encrusted with gems, and a tooth extracted from Santa Rosalia, whose ashes are also kept here in a silver reliquary.
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