Ram palace in Partinico
Palazzo Ram is the oldest masseria in Partinico still existing. It stands on the slopes of the Cesarò hill and dominates the plain of Partinico as far as the sea.
The building was commissioned by the Ram, a powerful and noble family of Catalonia, towards the end of the 16th century.
The complex consists from the Casa-forte with its rural appurtenances, and a chapel. All the buildings fall within an agricultural land bordered by a boundary wall open to two monumental entrances: the original portal, which opens along the western curtain, consists of a simple round archway; a late Baroque portal, formed by two molded pillars and once surmounted by decorative vases.
The building has a single entrance consisting of a beautiful round portal, with ashlar ashlars and different surface processing, as well as four windows with ground floor. The external elevations are marked at the corners by large exposed stone pillars that reach the crenellated crowning of the building and rest on molded bases, connected to each other by a stone frame that runs all around the building.
The interior on the ground floor there is an atrium bordered by a portico, overlooked by a whole series of rooms covered with barrel vaults, not communicating with each other, and illuminated from the outside only by narrow slits. The rooms on the main floor are covered with pavilion vaults and with lunettes.
