Villa Palagonia
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The Villa Palagonia is a patrician villa in Bagheria, 15 km from Palermo, in Sicily, southern Italy. The villa itself, built from 1715 by the architect Tommaso Napoli with the help of Agatino Daidone, is one of the earliest examples of Sicilian Baroque. However, its popularity comes mainly from the statues of monsters 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 grotesques, created from 1749 by Francesco Ferdinando II Gravina, Prince of Palagonia, aroused the curiosity of the travellers of the Grand Tour during the 18th and 19th centuries, for instance Henry Swinburne, Patrick Brydone, John Soane, Goethe, the Count de Borde, the artist Jean-Pierre Houël or Alexandre Dumas, prior to fascinate surrealists like André Breton or contemporary authors such as Giovanni Macchia and Dominique Fernandez, or the painter Renato Guttuso.
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 Template:Fr icon
- Michel-Jean, comte de Borch, Lettres sur la Sicile et sur l'île de Malte, 1782 Extraits en ligne
- Template:En icon Patrick Brydone, A Tour Through Sicily and Malta: In a Series of Letters to William Beckford, Esq. of Somerly in Suffolk (1st ed. 1773)
- Template:Fr icon Alexandre Dumas, Impressions de voyage
- Template:Fr icon Dominique Fernandez, Le Radeau de la Gorgone (Promenades en Sicile), photographies de Ferrante Ferranti, Grasset, 1988
- Template:Fr icon Dominique Fernandez, Le Voyage d'Italie (Dictionnaire amoureux), photographies de Ferrante Ferranti, Plon, 1997
- Template:Fr icon Goethe, Voyage en Italie, 1787
- Template:Fr icon P. Hachet, Psychanalyse d'un choc esthétique : La villa Palagonia et ses visiteurs, L'Harmattan, 2002
- Template:Fr icon Giovanni Macchia, Le Prince de Palagonia, Quai Voltaire, 1987
- Template:Fr icon Dacia Maraini, Retour à Bagheria, Seuil, 2004
- Template:En icon E. H. Neil, Architecture in context : The Villas of Bagheria, Sicily, Harvard University, 1995
- Template:Fr icon Madeleine Pinault, Catalogue de l'exposition Houël, Voyage en Sicile, 1776-1779, musée du Louvre, RMN
- Template:It icon Mario Praz, Bellezza e bizzarria, 1960
- Template:Fr icon Mario Praz, Le Jardin des sens, Christian Bourgois, 1975
- Template:It icon F. Santapà, Villa Palagonia a Bagheria, Palermo, Palma, 1968
- Template:It icon R. Scaduto, Villa Palagonia: storia e restauro, Bagheria, E. M. Falcone, 2007
- Template:It icon Ferdinando Scianna, La Villa dei mostri, Einaudi, 1977
- Template:En icon Henry Swinburne, Travels in the Two Sicilies, 1777-1780, Cadell & Elmsly, London, 1790
- Template:It icon N. Tedesco, Villa Palagonia, Palermo, 1988
- Template:Fr icon Angheli Zalapì, Demeures de Sicile, préface de Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, photographies de Melo Minnella, Könemann, 2000
Filmography
- Several scenes of L'Avventura (1960), by Michelangelo Antonioni, with Monica Vitti, were filmed at the Villa Palagonia.
- In The Wedding Director (2006), by Marco Bellocchio, Sami Frey plays the part of a descendant of the Prince Gravina di Palagonia.
- Filming of the scenes from "L'Avventura" are featured in "Baaria" (2009) which is set in Bagheria by director Giuseppe Tornatore
See also
External links
LIFE Magazine (May 8, 1950) article 38°04′47″N 13°30′41″E / 38.07972°N 13.51139°E