Mirto Palace museum
Palazzo Mirto in Palermo is a splendid 18th century palace which has been the residence of the Filangeri family since 1594. In 1982 the palace, with all its furnishings and collections of art objects, it was donated to the Sicilian Region and transformed into a museum .
The building incorporates in its original structures a nucleus of ancient houses that once belonged to a noble and wealthy family of Pisan origins, the Resolmini. The current configuration of the building reflects, broadly speaking, that desired by Prince Bernando Filangeri in 1793.
Access to the building is via a portal surmounted by two ornamental vases and a stone coat of arms bearing the arms of the Filangeri.
On the ground floor of the building, in addition to the service areas such as stables, carriage sheds, kitchens, warehouses, there is the horsewoman, the most important stables of noble palaces. It consists of a large room covered with cross vaults, crossed by a double colonnade in gray stone that forms a long central corridor that ends with a large stone basin, the drinking trough. On the sides there are elegant horse boxes, with wrought iron and carved stone mangers. The plaque with the name of the horse can still be read on each of the boxes. noble floor.
Among the various rooms on the noble floor, the most representative are the " hall of the arazz i" and the " hall of the canopy ". The tapestry room, once the bedroom of the Filangeri princes, features embroidered silk tapestries and Empire-style furniture. The "hall of the canopy" has the walls entirely covered with "picturesque" embroidered panels, with scenes of the liberated Jerusalem, very rare and of Sicilian workmanship. In the center of the vault we find the great fresco by Elia Interguglielmi in 1795, which represents "the glory of the Virtuous Prince". At the center of the hall stands the princely throne where the prince usually sat in official receptions and behind this a large tapestry with canopy, depicting the capture of the Persian city of Arimaze by Alexander the Great. The hall overlooks a large terrace where there is a suggestive Baroque fountain formed by an artificial cave of spongy rocks decorated with shells, flanked by two aviaries.
The second floor of the building, almost completely open to visitors, was intended for everyday life of the family, consists of more intimate rooms, but still furnished with elegance and taste.
