Bagheria

Three hundred or so years ago, Palermo was significantly smaller than it is now. Rather than the 1%/99% that we rant about now, the split in Sicily was probably closer to 0.1/99.9. A small handful of people controlled the vast majority of wealth on the island. They had the wherewithal to live lives we can’t imagine. For instance, the wealthy families maintained a hunting lodge in Bagheria where they would go occasionally. When you see it now, hemmed in on all sides by suburban Palermo sprawl, it is hard to imagine that it was ever even remotely isolated.

The Villa Palagonia is a European baroque party house with a huge reception hall, ballroom, dining area and bedrooms. With the exception of the ballroom, think frat house on steroids. The current visitor’s entrance is in the back, through a citrus grove.

The entire grounds are ringed by a ten foot tall wall, topped with a row of grotesque figures. This picture is of the figures above the main/front entrance.

In this picture of the front of the building you note the ornate baroque coming through as well as the symmetry of the building. The double staircase is quite unusual for this period.

When you enter after climbing the exterior stairs to the primo piano you find yourself in a hallway painted with four scenes from the labors of Herakles. Recognize this one? You should. It is the capture of the Erymanthian boar, the same labor as the one pictured from the Palazzo Reale. Again, everything you see in this picture is painted. Not even the columns are real stone.

To the right of the entry hall is the Hall of Mirrors. The ceiling looks like it is made of polished grey stone, but that is the result of the deterioration of its original mirrored surfaces. The decorations are an interesting combination of real materials and fake, painted ones married so seamlessly that I don’t expect many people can tell them apart. Some of the marble on the walls is real. However, most of the interesting colored pieces are actually paint on the back of glass which has been done so skillfully it looks like highly polished stone.

Finally, while it doesn’t seem intentional on the part of the owners of the property, the grounds are a semi cat sanctuary. At one point when looking out the window I counted no fewer than 7 cats in the garden including two hanging out in this tree.