Description
The Palazzo Ajutamicristo, on Via Garibaldi, is a fifteenth-century noble palace: an example of Sicilian Gothic, with an arched portal, swallow-tail battlements and a large frescoed ballroom. Part of it now houses collections of sculptures and carriages.
It was commissioned by the banker Guglielmo Ajutamicristo, baron of Misilmeri and Calatafimi, who had made his fortune in the grain trade and wanted a residence in the city to manage it more conveniently. It was built between 1490 and 1495 by Matteo Carnilivari.
The entrance is a polycentric arched portal, with a rod-molded archivolt on bundles of small columns and a complicated rhomboid frame, where one looks for the Ajutamicristo coat of arms. Above runs the Ghibelline swallow-tail crenellation.
The project was carried out only in part, with more care given to the interior. Then came the Moncada, who in the 1600s remodeled it with large classicist windows and balconies supported by stone brackets: which is why the styles mix today.
The finest piece is the ballroom, made around 1780, with a ceiling frescoed with the Glory of the Virtuous Prince. The two halves of the palace have different lives: one part is lived in by private owners, the other belongs to the Region.
In the public part you can visit a collection of sculptures with works by Domenico Gagini and Ignazio Marabitti, and above all the two Mellerio stelae, commissioned from Antonio Canova in 1812. In other rooms is the Martorana Genuardi collection of carriages.
In 1535 the emperor Charles V slept here, returning from the victorious Tunis campaign, because the Royal Palace was not suited to his magnificence. In 1576 Don John of Austria, the victor of Lepanto, was also hosted here.
The garden was the "Flora of Caltanissetta": tree-lined avenues, stone benches, statues and fountains, open to the public only at certain hours of the day. In 1797 Prince Giovanni Luigi Moncada was kidnapped by pirates, and the ransom, paid in installments to the Bey of Tunis, marked the palace's decline.
It was commissioned by the banker Guglielmo Ajutamicristo, baron of Misilmeri and Calatafimi, who had made his fortune in the grain trade and wanted a residence in the city to manage it more conveniently. It was built between 1490 and 1495 by Matteo Carnilivari.
The entrance is a polycentric arched portal, with a rod-molded archivolt on bundles of small columns and a complicated rhomboid frame, where one looks for the Ajutamicristo coat of arms. Above runs the Ghibelline swallow-tail crenellation.
The project was carried out only in part, with more care given to the interior. Then came the Moncada, who in the 1600s remodeled it with large classicist windows and balconies supported by stone brackets: which is why the styles mix today.
The finest piece is the ballroom, made around 1780, with a ceiling frescoed with the Glory of the Virtuous Prince. The two halves of the palace have different lives: one part is lived in by private owners, the other belongs to the Region.
In the public part you can visit a collection of sculptures with works by Domenico Gagini and Ignazio Marabitti, and above all the two Mellerio stelae, commissioned from Antonio Canova in 1812. In other rooms is the Martorana Genuardi collection of carriages.
In 1535 the emperor Charles V slept here, returning from the victorious Tunis campaign, because the Royal Palace was not suited to his magnificence. In 1576 Don John of Austria, the victor of Lepanto, was also hosted here.
The garden was the "Flora of Caltanissetta": tree-lined avenues, stone benches, statues and fountains, open to the public only at certain hours of the day. In 1797 Prince Giovanni Luigi Moncada was kidnapped by pirates, and the ransom, paid in installments to the Bey of Tunis, marked the palace's decline.