Page 148 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

and a ring of harbourside fish restaurants that might just persuade you to make a night

of it.

A town map outside the gates of Villa Palagonia shows you the local layout, but
basically anything else you need – like drinks and ice cream – is easily found down
the pleasant, long, traffic-free Corso Umberto I that runs from the villa.

Villa Palagonia

Via Palagonia • Daily: April–Oct 9am–1pm & 4–7pm; Nov–March 9am–1pm & 3.30–5.30pm • €5 • 091 932 088,
villapalagonia.it

Best known – or perhaps that should be most notorious – of Bagheria’s Baroque villas
is the Villa Palagonia, whose grounds boast an eccentric menagerie of grotesque
gnomes, giants, gargoyles and assorted mutants. The villa was the work of Ferdinand,
Prince of Palagonia, a hunchback who – in league with the architect Tommaso Napoli
– took revenge on his wife’s lovers by cruelly caricaturing them. Although only 64 of

the original 200 statues remain, they certainly add entertainment to a wander around
the garden, before you climb the stairs into the crumbling sandstone villa to view a
selection of frescoed halls and the dramatic Salone degli Specchi, covered in mirrors
and marbling.

BAGHERIA’S OTHER VILLAS

Several of Bagheria’s villas are privately owned, and only open to the public on
occasion; check bagherianews.com for details. Of these, Villa Valguarnera on
Piazza Sturzo, another Tommaso Napoli design, displays Bagheria’s most sumptuous
facade, pink and festooned with a royal coat of arms and Attic statues. Villa Butera,

on Corso Butera, just off the SS113, has a collection of wax figures in Carthusian
apparel within its grounds. Legend has it that their creator, Ercole Branciforti, had
promised the erection of a Carthusian abbey in return for the granting of a prayer,
and took the crafty way out when the prayer was answered.

Museo Guttuso

Via Rammacca 9 • April–Oct Tues–Sun 9.30am–2pm & 3–7.30pm • €5 • 091 943 902, museoguttuso.it

Some 500m from the train station along the main SS113, Villa Cattolica has been
restored to hold the Museo Guttuso, dedicated to Bagheria’s most famous son,
Renato Guttuso (1912–87), whose brilliant use of colour and striking imagery made

him one of Italy’s most important modern artists; his tomb, designed by his friend, the
sculptor Giacomo Manzù, is in the garden.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: BAGHERIA