Betania Villa in Valderice
Villa Betania, once known as Villa Adragna d'Altavilla, is one of the sumptuous villas that were built between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century in Valderice and which became a holiday resort for nobles and aristocrats from Trapani and Erice.
Originally the villa was a manor settlement serving the estate, it was subsequently enlarged and renovated to be used as a holiday resort.
Today the complex equipped with monumental buildings and surrounded by a vast park is owned by the Episcopal Curia of Trapani and since 1960 it has been home to a Psycho-Pedagogical Medical Institute.
Among the other noble villas of Valderice we remember: Villa Minaudo-Quartana, known today as Villa Adragna, built at the beginning of the 20th century and characterized by strictly geometric lines of Gothic and Romanesque inspiration. What characterizes the villa is its splendid garden in which Italian, rocky and exotic compositions harmonize; Villa Elena, located on the route from Valderice to Bonagia, stands out for the Venetian Gothic style of the façade and is among the most valuable nineteenth-century buildings in the area. Although it belonged to several important noble families, it owes its current name in homage to Elena Regis Genna, a well-known operetta singer who lived there in the 1960s. On the main facade there is the entrance to the private chapel, which shows a stucco frame on the altar and a tombstone dating back to 1861 on the floor.
