Palazzo Valguarnera-Gangi is the large ancestral townhouse

Townhouse

A townhouse is the term historically used in the United Kingdom, Ireland and in many other countries to describe a residence of a peer or member of the aristocracy in the capital or major city. Most such figures owned one or more country houses in which they lived for much of the year...

 of firstly the Princes Valguarnera and then the Princes Gangi, situated in the Piazza Croce dei Vespri, Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

, Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

. The house was constructed in several phases during the 18th century and completed circa 1780.

The palace is designed in the Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 style, although its ornamentation is of a more severe form than that which is generally accepted as Sicilian Baroque

Sicilian Baroque

Sicilian Baroque is the distinctive form of Baroque architecture that took hold on the island of Sicily, off the southern coast of Italy, in the 17th and 18th centuries...

. The tall windows of the piano nobile

Piano nobile

The piano nobile is the principal floor of a large house, usually built in one of the styles of classical renaissance architecture...

 are decorated with alternating pointed and segment

Line segment

In geometry, a line segment is a part of a line that is bounded by two end points, and contains every point on the line between its end points. Examples of line segments include the sides of a triangle or square. More generally, when the end points are both vertices of a polygon, the line segment...

ed pediment

Pediment

A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...

s, while the windows of the lower and upper floors are much smaller, almost cell like, indicating the lower status of the rooms they house. In this way the architecture could be said to be more Renaissance

Renaissance architecture

Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...

 than Baroque.

In 1750 the interior was created in true Sicilian Baroque style by Marianna Valguarnera, with special furniture in the very ornate style being created by local craftsmen

Master craftsman

A master craftsman or master tradesman was a member of a guild. In the European guild system, only masters were allowed to be members of the guild....

. The creation of the house took so long that the Baroque style passed from fashion in favour of the neoclassical

Neoclassical architecture

Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...

 style, and it was during this era that the large circular and dome

Dome

A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....

d dining room was created with its painted panel

Panel

- Art and comic books :*Panel painting, in art, either one element of a multi-element piece of art, such as a triptych, a piece of sequential art such as a graphic novel or comic strip, or a wooden panel used to paint a picture on...

s in the dome by Giuseppe Velasco.

In 1963 the palazzo, and most memorably its ballroom, were the setting for Luchino Visconti

Luchino Visconti

Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo was an Italian theatre, opera and cinema director, as well as a screenwriter. He is best known for his films The Leopard and Death in Venice .-Life:...

's film' Il Gattopardo

Il gattopardo

Il gattopardo may refer to:*The Leopard, a novel*The Leopard , a film based on the novel...

 (The Leopard).

Today, while the famous ballroom may be hire

Hire

Hire may refer to:*Employment*Rental*Payment for the use of a ship under a time charterHIRE may refer to*Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act, a United States law enacted in 2010...

d for functions, the remainder of the house remains a private residence.