Bagheria's Palaces

Weird sculptures and glorious villas in a suburb of Palermo

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 are still occupied, but most are 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 (www.villapalagonia.it).

This most famous of Bagheria's palaces was built in 1705, but it was two more generations before Prince Ferdinando Gavina II added the villa's trademark freakish statues that party all along the tops of its garden walls.

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.

Villa Cattolica

Sitting alone on a hillock at the edge of town (on the SS113 road to Palermo) is the 1736 Villa Cattolica, (www.museoguttuso.it), a fine example of palazzo architecture and now home to the Museo Guttoso [Temporarily closed for renovtions]

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.

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