Villa Palagonia
Encyclopedia
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Bagheria
Bagheria is a town and comune in the Province of Palermo in Sicily, Italy.-Etymology:According to some sources, the name Bagheria originates from the Phoenician term Bayharia meaning "land that descends toward the sea." Other sources claim that it derives from the Arabic Bāb al-Gerib, or "windy...
, 15 km from 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...
, in 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,...
, southern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. The villa
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
itself, built from 1715 by the architect Tommaso Napoli with the help of Agatino Daidone, is one of the earliest examples of 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...
. However, its popularity comes mainly from the statues of monster
Monster
A monster is any fictional creature, usually found in legends or horror fiction, that is somewhat hideous and may produce physical harm or mental fear by either its appearance or its actions...
s with human faces that decorate its garden and its wall, and earned it the nickname of "The Villa of Monsters" (Villa dei Mostri ).
This series of grotesque
Grotesque
The word grotesque comes from the same Latin root as "Grotto", meaning a small cave or hollow. The original meaning was restricted to an extravagant style of Ancient Roman decorative art rediscovered and then copied in Rome at the end of the 15th century...
s, created from 1749 by Francesco Ferdinando II Gravina, Prince of Palagonia, aroused the curiosity of the travellers of the Grand Tour
Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...
during the 18th and 19th centuries, for instance Henry Swinburne
Henry Swinburne
Henry Swinburne was an English travel writer.-Life:He was born at Bristol on 8 July 1743, into a Catholic family, and was educated at Scorton school, near Catterick, Yorkshire. He was then sent to the monastic seminary of Lacelle in France. He afterwards studied at Paris, Bordeaux, and in the...
, Patrick Brydone
Patrick Brydone
Patrick Brydone FRSE FRS FSA FSA was a Scottish traveller and author who served as Comptroller of the Stamp Office.Brydone was born in Coldingham, Berwickshire, where his father Robert Brydon was a Church of Scotland minister....
, John Soane
John Soane
Sir John Soane, RA was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. His architectural works are distinguished by their clean lines, massing of simple form, decisive detailing, careful proportions and skilful use of light sources...
, Goethe, the Count de Borde, the artist Jean-Pierre Houël or Alexandre Dumas, prior to fascinate surrealists like André Breton
André Breton
André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
or contemporary authors such as Giovanni Macchia and Dominique Fernandez
Dominique Fernandez
Dominique Fernandez is an openly homosexual French novelist and member of the Académie française...
, or the painter Renato Guttuso
Renato Guttuso
Renato Guttuso was an Italian painter.His best-known paintings include Flight from Etna , Crucifixion and La Vucciria . Guttuso also designed for the theatre and did illustrations for books...
.
In 1885, the villa was bought by private individuals, who are still in its possession, and is partially open to the public.
Sources
- Claude Arthaud, Les Palais du rêve, Arthaud, 1970
- Michel-Jean, comte de Borch, Lettres sur la Sicile et sur l'île de Malte, 1782 Extraits en ligne Patrick BrydonePatrick BrydonePatrick Brydone FRSE FRS FSA FSA was a Scottish traveller and author who served as Comptroller of the Stamp Office.Brydone was born in Coldingham, Berwickshire, where his father Robert Brydon was a Church of Scotland minister....
, A Tour Through Sicily and Malta: In a Series of Letters to William Beckford, Esq. of Somerly in Suffolk (1st ed. 1773) Alexandre Dumas, Impressions de voyage Dominique FernandezDominique FernandezDominique Fernandez is an openly homosexual French novelist and member of the Académie française...
, Le Radeau de la Gorgone (Promenades en Sicile), photographies de Ferrante Ferranti, Grasset, 1988 Dominique Fernandez, Le Voyage d'Italie (Dictionnaire amoureux), photographies de Ferrante Ferranti, Plon, 1997 Goethe, Voyage en Italie, 1787 P. Hachet, Psychanalyse d'un choc esthétique : La villa Palagonia et ses visiteurs, L'Harmattan, 2002 Giovanni Macchia, Le Prince de Palagonia, Quai Voltaire, 1987 Dacia MarainiDacia MarainiDacia Maraini is an Italian writer. She is the daughter of Sicilian Princess Topazia Alliata di Salaparuta, an artist and art dealer, and of Fosco Maraini, a Florentine ethnologist and mountaineer of mixed Ticinese, English and Polish background who wrote in particular on Tibet and Japan...
, Retour à Bagheria, Seuil, 2004 E. H. Neil, Architecture in context : The Villas of Bagheria, Sicily, Harvard University, 1995 Madeleine Pinault, Catalogue de l'exposition Houël, Voyage en Sicile, 1776-1779, musée du Louvre, RMN Mario PrazMario PrazMario Praz KBE was an Italian-born critic of art and literature, and a scholar of English literature. His best-known book, The Romantic Agony , was a comprehensive survey of the erotic and morbid themes that characterized European authors of the late 18th and 19th centuries...
, Bellezza e bizzarria, 1960 Mario Praz, Le Jardin des sens, Christian Bourgois, 1975 F. Santapà, Villa Palagonia a Bagheria, Palermo, Palma, 1968 R. Scaduto, Villa Palagonia: storia e restauro, Bagheria, E. M. Falcone, 2007 Ferdinando Scianna, La Villa dei mostri, Einaudi, 1977 Henry SwinburneHenry SwinburneHenry Swinburne was an English travel writer.-Life:He was born at Bristol on 8 July 1743, into a Catholic family, and was educated at Scorton school, near Catterick, Yorkshire. He was then sent to the monastic seminary of Lacelle in France. He afterwards studied at Paris, Bordeaux, and in the...
, Travels in the Two Sicilies, 1777-1780, Cadell & Elmsly, London, 1790 N. Tedesco, Villa Palagonia, Palermo, 1988 Angheli Zalapì, Demeures de Sicile, préface de Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, photographies de Melo Minnella, Könemann, 2000
Filmography
- Several scenes of L'AvventuraL'avventuraL'Avventura is a 1960 Italian film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and developed from a story he created. Monica Vitti and Gabriele Ferzetti star. It is noted for its careful pacing, which puts a focus on visual composition and character development, as well as for its unusual narrative structure...
(1960), by Michelangelo AntonioniMichelangelo AntonioniMichelangelo Antonioni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian modernist film director, screenwriter, editor and short story writer.- Personal life :...
, with Monica VittiMonica VittiMonica Vitti is an Italian actress best known for her starring roles in films directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, her lover at that time, during the early 1960s...
, were filmed at the Villa Palagonia. - In The Wedding DirectorThe Wedding DirectorThe Wedding Director is a 2006 Italian drama film directed by Marco Bellocchio. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Sergio Castellitto - Franco Elica* Donatella Finocchiaro - Bona di Gravina...
(2006), by Marco Bellocchio, Sami FreySami FreySami Frey, born Samuel Frei is a French actor. Perhaps his most famous films are En compagnie d'Antonin Artaud and Bande à part...
plays the part of a descendant of the Prince Gravina di Palagonia. - Filming of the scenes from "L'AvventuraL'avventuraL'Avventura is a 1960 Italian film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and developed from a story he created. Monica Vitti and Gabriele Ferzetti star. It is noted for its careful pacing, which puts a focus on visual composition and character development, as well as for its unusual narrative structure...
" are featured in "BaariaBaarìaBaarìa can refer to:* Baarìa, Sicily, presently known as Bagheria* Baarìa - La porta del vento , film by director Giuseppe Tornatore...
" (2009) which is set in Bagheria by director Guiseppe Tornatore