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Bagheria's Palaces
Weird sculptures and glorious villas in a suburb of Palermo
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Bagheria is an overbuilt suburb 15km east of Palermo (there are buses from Palermo's Piazza Lolli), as famous for being one of Sicily's most corrupt mafia strongholds as it is for the dozens of sumptuous country villas that were built here in the early 18th century when this was all noble-owned farmland.
Engulfed by hideous modern buildings on all sides, most of the villas are now padlocked to the public—a few still occupied but most uninhabited and unattended, rotting corpses of Palermo's past grandeur. Two, however, remain open.
Villa Palagonia
On Piazza Garibaldi (at the end of Corso Umberto) two grinning, montrous dwarf telamons flank the gate into Villa Palagonia (tel. +39-091-932-088). This most famous of Bagheria's palaces was built in 1705, but given the trademark freakish statues that party all along the tops of its garden walls two generations later by Prince Ferdinando.
The prince was the residing lunatic when Goethe visited and described in disgust these garden decorations: "Beggars of both sexes...Moors, Turks, hunchbacks, deformed persons of every kind, dwarfs, musicians, Pulcinellas, soldiers in antique uniforms...the head of a horse on a human body...many dragons and snakes, every kind of paw attached to every kind of body...an orchestra of monkeys and similar absurditites; dragons alternate with gods, and an Atlas carries a wine cask instead of the celestial globe."
Tour groups toting cameras seem to appreciate the effect more that Goethe did. You can also visit the lightly decaying first level of the main villa, with its vestibule frescoes of the Labors of Heracles and the odd mirrors room, walled with what look like rich, polished marble panels but are actually glass plates painted from behind.
It's closed from 12:30 to 4pm—a shame, since this is a perfect lunch stop and I finished well before 4. Still, by poking around the side-streets and making a circuit of the villa, taking every little alley to keep as close to it as possible, I was able to get a sampler of the carvings at a pair of crumbling, bricked-up gates each topped with a cadre of gruesome yet sad figures.
Villa Cattolica
Sitting alone on a hillock at the edge of town (on the SS113 road to Palermo) is the 1736 Villa Cattolica, (tel. +39-091-905-438), a fine example of palazzo architecture. The main villa, with many rooms' floors and ceilings preserved, is now a gallery of mediocre Impressionist and futurist paintings. The outbuildings are used for temporary exhibits.
Tips
- How to get to Bagheria: An AST bus (tel. +39-091-688-2906) from Palermo's Piazza Lolli makes the hour-long trip every half hour (hourly after 2pm). By car, take the SS113 toward Messina.
- Bagheria tourism information: The Bagheria tourist office is at Via Ruggero Leoncavallo 36 (tel. +39-091-943-298).
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This material was last updated January 2010. All information was accurate at the time.
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