Description
Piazza Marina is a vast square in Palermo's historic center, in the Kalsa, a stone's throw from the little harbor of La Cala. In the middle is a 19th-century garden; all around, a ring of noble palaces and churches.
Its heart is Villa Garibaldi, the garden designed in 1863 by Giovan Battista Filippo Basile, where a monumental Ficus macrophylla grows. In front of the Palazzo delle Finanze stands the baroque Fontana del Garraffo by Paolo Amato, moved here from the Vucciria.
Facing the square are Palazzo Chiaramonte, known as the Steri, Palazzo Mirto, the Hotel de France with the Puppet Museum, and the churches of Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria della Catena.
Until the Middle Ages this was a marsh connected to the port. Drained in the 14th century, it became the place where the Inquisition executed the heretics held in the Steri. In 1909, right in this square, Joe Petrosino was killed, the New York policeman who was investigating the Black Hand.
Its heart is Villa Garibaldi, the garden designed in 1863 by Giovan Battista Filippo Basile, where a monumental Ficus macrophylla grows. In front of the Palazzo delle Finanze stands the baroque Fontana del Garraffo by Paolo Amato, moved here from the Vucciria.
Facing the square are Palazzo Chiaramonte, known as the Steri, Palazzo Mirto, the Hotel de France with the Puppet Museum, and the churches of Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria della Catena.
Until the Middle Ages this was a marsh connected to the port. Drained in the 14th century, it became the place where the Inquisition executed the heretics held in the Steri. In 1909, right in this square, Joe Petrosino was killed, the New York policeman who was investigating the Black Hand.