Palazzo Biscari, palace of Sicilian taste for excess

Here is one of Catania’s most wondrous palaces, erected on the city’s former Spanish fortifications. Its massive figure spreads from Via Vittorio Emanuele II to Via Dusmet. The sculpted elements are interspersed with window frames and announce the ostentatious nature inside.
Alternately house of the Paterno Castello family and Biscari princes, it has come forward as the symbol of the brutal shift from the Renaissance style. After the 1693 earthquake, Ignazio Biscari, famed lover of the arts, imagines a new style and decoration for the place. With gildings, frescoes and ornaments, gorgeous painted ceilings, music rooms and scrolled staircase railings, the various areas took on sophisticated pomp, intensifying its creator’s will for uniqueness. This capricious geometry brings constant ravishment to visitors, one of them none other than Goethe, who described its abundance of luxury and extravagance in his writings. Note that visits need be booked beforehand.

Palazzo Biscari
Via Museo Biscari 10-16
95131 Catania
+39 095 328 7201
www.palazzobiscari.it/