Cocuzza Palace a Monterosso Almo
Palazzo Cocuzza is the important civil building of Monterosso Almo. It was built at the end of the nineteenth century at the behest of the powerful Cocuzza family who wanted to leave a tangible sign of its influence. It was built in Piazza San Giovanni, the new hub of the emerging elite, and to do this the Cocuzza family bought almost an entire neighborhood, razing several houses to the ground.
Palazzo Cocuzza is divided into three floors for a total of over 40 rooms , all finely furnished with period furniture and with the original floors, recently restored and brought back to the lustres of the past. The entire building reflects the canons of the Liberty style, or Art Nouveau, particularly widespread in Sicily in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The splendid facade is enriched by a large entrance door surmounted by an arch with the family crest in the center. The door leads to a large atrium that allows access to the first floor whose rooms host the local civic museum of Monterosso Almo with archaeological finds from the site of Monte Casasia. A spectacular elliptical ramp staircase leads to the main floor. The vaults of the dining room and the party hall are variously frescoed, and the rooms are decorated with roundels with hunting scenes and medallions with female figures.
The Cocuzza family was one of the richest and most influential families in the territory of Monterosso Almo, with some prominent personalities who have held various institutional roles, such as Federico Cocuzza who held the role of deputy and senator of Italy for several years. Senator Federico Cocuzza, at the beginning of the last century, put together all his forces and his influence to create a new section of railway that started from Syracuse, forked at the crossroads of Giarratana to reach Ragusa or Caltagirone, passing nearby Monterosso. Today, some tunnels remain of that railway, small abandoned stations and a project to transform it into a fascinating trekking route.
