Biscari Palace in Catania
Palazzo Biscari is the most important private palace in Catania. It represents a precious testimony of the Sicilian Baroque thanks to the allegorical groups of the decorations on the external façade of the building.
Built on the sixteenth-century walls of Charles V, it appears as the gateway to the city for those coming from the sea. Of great impact, in fact, is the vision of the balconies and pilasters in white Syracuse stone that emerge from the black background of the lava base with decorations with flowers, cherubs, fauns and telamons. Consisting of seven huge windows that enclose sculptures and decorations of extraordinary workmanship in Sicilian Baroque style, the rear facade of the marina is rich, that the entrance seems unadorned.
The façade on Via Museo Biscari has no relief with the exception of the portal, the largest in Catania in terms of size and richness, bearing the genealogical flagpole of Prince Vincenzo IV. From here you enter the vast courtyard. Once full of trees, flower beds, pergolas, today unfortunately sponglio, it ends with an important pincer staircase that ascends to the large room that houses numerous paintings with the fiefs of the Biscari house. From there you pass into the Green Room, full of paintings and over doors, with a beautiful terracotta floor with inlays of white Syracuse stone. The next Red Room houses large portraits of the eminent characters of Casa Biscari. From this you enter the large main hall, known as the Orchestra, a magnificent example of Rococo with influences of Neapolitan taste.
The Palace was used to shoot some scenes of "The Viceroys": a 2007 film that takes up the novel by Federico De Roberto entitled "The Viceroys" set against the background of the events of the southern Risorgimento, narrated here through the story of a noble family from Catania .
