Gravina-Cruyllas Palace in Francofonte
The Gravina-Cruyllas palace in Francofonte, now the town hall, is the main civil building in the city. It has Renaissance and Baroque elements.
It was built at the behest of Don Ignazio Sebastiano Gravina in 1705, as reported on the tombstones on the sides of the main entrance, on the ruins of a castle. In fact, the earthquake of 1693 razed the fourteenth-century castle to the ground, of which only the ruins of the two towers that made up the great wall remain visible today.
The palace rests on an elevated platform. The facade is divided into two orders. On the first order, there is the main door delimited by a pair of superimposed pillars that support a round arch, flanked by a series of three doors on each side surmounted by a lunette. At the edge of the prospectus there are firm buttresses in pyramidal lava stone with facets in relief. On the first order there is a series of openings which have jambs treated in ashlar. The central one, more densely decorated, is surmounted by the coat of arms of the Prince of Palagonia's family. In a central and angular position there are balconies that rest on sculpted shelves. On the north side of the castle wall there is a Romanesque-Byzantine lunette of particular artistic value.
The characterizing element of the entire architecture is the balustrade cornice which rests on carved corbels, depicting grotesque masks, each one different from the other.
