Nearby
Casa4Casa is located in the center of Palermo, halfway between the Teatro Massimo and the Teatro Politeama. On foot you can visit historic houses, churches, fountains and many other monuments of the city.
Maximus Theater
The Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele in Palermo is the largest opera house building in Italy and one of the largest in Europe. Its opening dates back to the last years of the nineteenth century, when the project begun by Giovanni Battista Filippo Basile in 1875 was completed, then completed by his son Ernesto, who would become the master of Italian Liberty, making Palermo one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Europe. The opera that inaugurated the stage at the Massimo was Verdi's Falstaff. Since then the theater has hosted the most important opera directors, opera singers, and orchestras in the world. The Teatro Massimo is also an ideal starting point for a tour of the historic center to discover the monuments, historic buildings and churches, which are mostly concentrated in the area between Piazza Verdi and the Central Station.
Politeama Theater
The Teatro Politeama Garibaldi develops in Piazza Ruggero Settimo, often called "Piazza Politeama". The work is based on symmetries at the base of which there is an expository conciseness in line with the characteristic elements of the Napoleonic Triumphal Arches. At its entrance is clearly visible a bronze quadriga with Apollo, god of music, and Euterpe, muse of opera, by Mario Rutelli. The theater was inaugurated in 1874 and the first performance was "I Capuleti ei Montecchi" by Vincenzo Bellini.
Four Songs
At the intersection of the two main streets of Palermo, Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Via Maqueda, is this open space at the corners of which rise the convex facades of the beautiful seventeenth-century buildings. The facades are decorated in three superimposed orders (Doric, Ionic and Corinthian) with, in the centre, fountains surmounted by statues of the four seasons. In the niches of the upper orders there are instead the statues of Spanish kings and those of the patron saints of Palermo, the Sante Cristina, Ninfa, Oliva and Agata, later supplanted by Santa Rosalia. The crossroads also marks the four zones into which Palermo was once divided: Palazzo Reale, Mezzomonreale, Castellammare and Oreto, each entrusted to a Saint.
Pretoria square
Piazza Pretoria, commonly called "Piazza della Vergogna", due to the nakedness of the statues that make up the beautiful fountain, is entirely sculpted in white Carrara marble by the sculptor Francesco Camilliani who created it in Florence in 1554 and subsequently purchased it from the city of Palermo . The stupendous square is located not far from the Quattro Canti, exactly in the center of gravity of the historic city. The fountain is an example of the Tuscan Renaissance, it occupies the entire center of the square and is one of the most beautiful fountains in Italy.
Cathedral
The Cathedral of Palermo is one of the symbols of the city. It is located at the beginning of Corso Vittorio Emanuele, just beyond Porta Nuova. The building is connected to the nearby Archbishop's Palace and is located in the center of an area rich in monuments, churches and noble palaces. The building that can be admired today at the entrance on Corso Vittorio Emanuele is the result of many alterations that took place over the centuries, under the different dominations that took turns on the throne of Sicily, such as the Arabs and the Normans. Located along the right side of the cathedral is the chapel of Santa Rosalia. The Palermitans invoke her as patroness, for the miracle she performed in saving the city from the plague that broke out in 1624.
Palace of the Normans
The Palazzo dei Normanni, also known as the Royal Palace, is currently the seat of the Sicilian Regional Assembly. The palace is the oldest royal residence in Europe, the residence of the sovereigns of the Kingdom of Sicily, the imperial seat with Federico II and Corrado IV and of the historic Sicilian Parliament. On the first floor of the building stands the Palatine Chapel. It was built between 1130 and 1143 at the behest of King Roger II. The richness of the decorations is impressive, in particular that of the Byzantine mosaics that cover all the upper walls of the naves.
The Marzipan
The church of Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio known as La Martorana is adjacent to the church of San Cataldo. Byzantine building from the Middle Ages, it bears witness to oriental religious and artistic culture in Italy. The church was a reference point for the Albanian exiles who took refuge in Sicily from the 15th century, under the pressure of the Turkish-Ottoman persecutions in the Balkans. The latter influence has left notable traces in the painting of icons, in the religious rite, in the language, in the traditional customs of some Albanian colonies in the province of Palermo. The community is part of the Catholic Church, but follows the rituals and spiritual traditions that largely unite it with the Orthodox Church.
Church of San Cataldo
The Church of San Cataldo stands near Piazza Bellini in an elevated position with respect to the level of the square. The religious building represents a precious testimony of that architecture which flourished under the Norman domination. The crowning glory of the building is made up of an arabesque battlement, above which the hemispherical volumes of the three characteristic red domes stand out, which cover the central nave, giving the building a particular exotic charm. Inside, characterized by the sober and severe bareness of its unadorned walls, the three square spans of the central nave stand out, enclosed by two short naves, covered by ogival cross vaults.
Mondello
Mondello beach is set between Monte Pellegrino and Monte Gallo, which give a touch of nature and greenery to the white beach lapped by a crystalline sea. Throughout the year you can enjoy the solitary and wild beauty of the beach, while in the summer months it transforms itself to best accommodate the many tourists who choose it as a destination for their seaside holidays. There are numerous Art Nouveau villas, known as the best expression of Art Nouveau in Italy.
Charleston
The Old Bathing Establishment of Mondello, known as Charleston, one of the architectural works in the Art Nouveau style, was born in the early twentieth century. The design of the building, located on a large platform supported by pylons immersed in the water, is due to the architect Rudolf Stualker, who had originally designed it for the Belgian city of Ostend. The construction of the plant was entrusted to the company of Giovanni Rutelli, son of the famous sculptor Mario Rutelli. The result was an elegant building decorated with volutes, friezes, sculptures and brightly colored stained glass windows.
