Description
The Palazzo Valguarnera-Gangi is an eighteenth-century noble palace in Palermo, near Piazza Sant'Anna and the Gallery of Modern Art. It covers eight thousand square meters and is considered one of the peaks of Italian Rococo, preserved almost intact to this day.
It is famous for the movies too: this is where the ball scene of The Leopard was shot by Luchino Visconti, one of the best-known moments of the 1963 film. The director used over ten thousand candles.
The palace came out of the will of Prince Pietro Valguarnera, who through his marriage to his niece Marianna joined two fortunes. The plan was to merge several of the city's residences into a single royal palace, and the work lasted from 1757 to 1792.
The genius of the building site was the Trapani architect Andrea Gigante, to whom we owe the monumental staircase with statues by Ignazio Marabitti and the openwork gallery inspired by the Bibiena family.
The signature room is the Yellow Salon, the ballroom lined with yellow silk. The openwork vault was designed to play with the light of the Murano chandeliers: the central one has 102 arms. The ceiling was painted by Gaspare Serenario with the "Triumph of the Virtues Necessary to the Prince."
The Hall of Mirrors has four large mirrors framed in pure gold leaf and a double ceiling of openwork wood, through which you glimpse the fresco higher up. In the Salone d'Onore the vault bears the "Glory of the Virtuous Prince" by Elia Interguglielmi, finished in 1792.
The palace also has a hanging garden on the Piazza Sant'Anna side, and below it there was a tiny theater. The style of the rooms recalls Versailles and the Royal Palace of Caserta.
In 1820 Princess Giovanna Valguarnera married Giuseppe Mantegna, Prince of Gangi, who renovated the palace in the Neoclassical Louis XVI taste. In 1907 a lunch was held here in honor of Edward VII of England and Queen Alexandra.
The palace still belongs to the descendants of its builders, which explains why it has been so well preserved.
It is famous for the movies too: this is where the ball scene of The Leopard was shot by Luchino Visconti, one of the best-known moments of the 1963 film. The director used over ten thousand candles.
The palace came out of the will of Prince Pietro Valguarnera, who through his marriage to his niece Marianna joined two fortunes. The plan was to merge several of the city's residences into a single royal palace, and the work lasted from 1757 to 1792.
The genius of the building site was the Trapani architect Andrea Gigante, to whom we owe the monumental staircase with statues by Ignazio Marabitti and the openwork gallery inspired by the Bibiena family.
The signature room is the Yellow Salon, the ballroom lined with yellow silk. The openwork vault was designed to play with the light of the Murano chandeliers: the central one has 102 arms. The ceiling was painted by Gaspare Serenario with the "Triumph of the Virtues Necessary to the Prince."
The Hall of Mirrors has four large mirrors framed in pure gold leaf and a double ceiling of openwork wood, through which you glimpse the fresco higher up. In the Salone d'Onore the vault bears the "Glory of the Virtuous Prince" by Elia Interguglielmi, finished in 1792.
The palace also has a hanging garden on the Piazza Sant'Anna side, and below it there was a tiny theater. The style of the rooms recalls Versailles and the Royal Palace of Caserta.
In 1820 Princess Giovanna Valguarnera married Giuseppe Mantegna, Prince of Gangi, who renovated the palace in the Neoclassical Louis XVI taste. In 1907 a lunch was held here in honor of Edward VII of England and Queen Alexandra.
The palace still belongs to the descendants of its builders, which explains why it has been so well preserved.