The Villa Vittorio Emanuele is Caltagirone's public garden, one of the largest in Sicily. It lies behind the Ceramics Museum, at the southern end of the historic centre. Work began in 1846 on the area of the so-called «silva di San Francesco», partly occupied by a small hill; the garden, modelled on English parks, is the work of the architect Giovan Battista Filippo Basile.
What to see
The main entrance is on via Roma, beside the Teatro Politeama: it is in Art Nouveau style, designed by Saverio Fragapane, with an unusual railing made of bundles of marsh reeds among which small fish, water birds and reptiles can be made out. Along the avenues are terracotta vases from the Bongiovanni Vaccaro workshop, majolica by Giuseppe Di Bartolo and ornamental terracottas by Gioacchino Ali, Gesualdo Vittorio Nicoletti and Enrico Vella. In the central space the Moorish-style bandstand stands out, clad in polychrome majolica.
In the lower part is one of the basins of the Fontana della Flora, of the sixteenth century, by the Florentine sculptor and architect Camillo Camilliani. Coming down from the entrance on viale Principessa Maria José you find two majolica panels by Gianni Ballarò and, in a niche, a statue of Ceres by Nicolò Barrano.
Visiting
You can also enter from the Teatrino, by two flights of steps. The garden's opening times should be checked with the town council.
Our editors' tip
Within the bounds of the garden are two museums: the former municipal library, an Art Nouveau building designed by Ernesto Basile, now the International Museum of the Nativity Scene, and the former Carabinieri barracks, home to the Museum of Photography and temporary exhibitions, fronted by a ceramic balustrade by Gesualdo Vittorio Nicoletti.
