The villa of monsters and the summer residences of the Palermitan nobility
In the eighteenth century the Palermitan aristocracy built their summer villas at Bagheria, a few kilometres east of the city, among lemon groves and with views of the sea. Dozens of baroque residences remain, though today surrounded by the modern town.
The most famous is Villa Palagonia, built from 1715 and decorated by Prince Francesco Ferdinando Gravina with an extraordinary procession of grotesque stone monsters on the walls: dragons, dwarfs, musicians, animals with human faces and other bizarre creatures. Goethe, who visited in 1787, called it the "madness of Palagonia". Inside, the Hall of Mirrors has a ceiling covered with mirrors. Villa Cattolica houses the Renato Guttuso museum, dedicated to the painter born in Bagheria.
Tip: Bagheria was the hometown of the director Giuseppe Tornatore, who set his film "Baarìa" here; the ruins of Solunto are just above the town.
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