Description
Palazzo Mirto is a house-museum in the Kalsa, Palermo's old Arab citadel: the palace of the Filangeri, princes of Mirto, furnished with furniture, chandeliers and paintings from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. It shows how Palermo's aristocracy lived.
For four centuries it was the Palermo residence of the Filangeri, and later of the Lanza Filangieri. The oldest structures date from the thirteenth century, but after the sixteenth century the palace was transformed several times, up to its present form.
Their descendants lived here without interruption until 1982, when the last heir, Maria Concetta Lanza Filangieri di Mirto, donated it to the Sicilian Region. This was the wish expressed in the will of her brother Stefano, who had imagined a museum from the start.
The route climbs the red marble grand staircase to the piano nobile. The furnishings are rich: Murano glass chandeliers, gold-lacquered panels from China, clocks, porcelain and tapestries.
The Salone del Baldacchino, the heart of the palace, was frescoed by Elia Interguglielmi in 1795 with the Glory of the Virtuous Prince. Among the allegories, a young woman clasps a branch of myrtle, a plant sacred to Aphrodite and the emblem of the house.
There is the Chinese-style smoking room, with its leather floor, the Ladies' sitting room and another with a secret passage. In the Salone degli Arazzi, the myth of Cupid and Psyche painted by Giuseppe Velasco.
The Salvator Rosa Room is frescoed with episodes from Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. Among the musical instruments are a barrel organ, a Viennese piano from 1820 and two other pianos. The reception rooms open onto a terrace with a rocaille nymphaeum and a garden painted in trompe-l'œil.
On the ground floor, besides the stables, the carriage houses and the kitchens, there are even prison cells. The Filangeri claimed descent from a legendary Norman knight, Angerio, who supposedly came to Italy with Tancred of Hauteville.
For four centuries it was the Palermo residence of the Filangeri, and later of the Lanza Filangieri. The oldest structures date from the thirteenth century, but after the sixteenth century the palace was transformed several times, up to its present form.
Their descendants lived here without interruption until 1982, when the last heir, Maria Concetta Lanza Filangieri di Mirto, donated it to the Sicilian Region. This was the wish expressed in the will of her brother Stefano, who had imagined a museum from the start.
The route climbs the red marble grand staircase to the piano nobile. The furnishings are rich: Murano glass chandeliers, gold-lacquered panels from China, clocks, porcelain and tapestries.
The Salone del Baldacchino, the heart of the palace, was frescoed by Elia Interguglielmi in 1795 with the Glory of the Virtuous Prince. Among the allegories, a young woman clasps a branch of myrtle, a plant sacred to Aphrodite and the emblem of the house.
There is the Chinese-style smoking room, with its leather floor, the Ladies' sitting room and another with a secret passage. In the Salone degli Arazzi, the myth of Cupid and Psyche painted by Giuseppe Velasco.
The Salvator Rosa Room is frescoed with episodes from Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. Among the musical instruments are a barrel organ, a Viennese piano from 1820 and two other pianos. The reception rooms open onto a terrace with a rocaille nymphaeum and a garden painted in trompe-l'œil.
On the ground floor, besides the stables, the carriage houses and the kitchens, there are even prison cells. The Filangeri claimed descent from a legendary Norman knight, Angerio, who supposedly came to Italy with Tancred of Hauteville.