Palazzo Cutò, also called Palazzo Aragona di Cutò, is one of the large villas built in Bagheria in the early eighteenth century, near the old via Consolare. Today it stands close to the town's railway station.
What to see
The villa was built between 1712 and 1716 by Luigi Onofrio Naselli, prince of Aragona, as a summer residence, to a design by the architect Giuseppe Mariani. The building is a massive quadrangular structure, with on top a large belvedere that in the past served as a meeting place for the local nobility: theatrical performances were staged there and people gathered for the fireworks of the Festino di Santa Rosalia. The pediment is decorated with two allegorical statues in niches, badly mutilated over the years. Inside, a large two-flight staircase leads to the main floor, a feature that sets it apart from the other noble summer residences, which were served by external stairs; there are frescoes datable to 1726, attributed to the painter Guglielmo Borremans, with mythological scenes and scenes from the Bible.
In 1803 the villa was bought by Alessandro Filangeri, prince of Cutò, and the monogram PC, for principe di Cutò, still appears on the main gate. In the early twentieth century the owners included Alessandro Tasca di Cutò, known as the Red Prince for his socialist sympathies, and Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, the future author of «The Leopard», related to the Filangeri di Cutò on his mother's side. In 1923 Tomasi sold the villa to non-aristocratic families of Bagheria, the Di Bernardo and then the Carollo, who kept it until 1987, when the complex was bought by the Comune. Since 1983 the Comune has pursued a programme of acquisition and recovery, directed until 1993 by the Bagheria architect Antonio Belvedere and then continued by the Soprintendenza and by municipal technicians.
Visiting
The palace is in Bagheria, near the station. The sources name it as the seat of the Francesco Scaduto Municipal Library, established in 1956, and, under a thirty-year loan for use, of the Michele Mancini University Multimedia Laboratory of the University of Palermo; it has also housed the Pietro Piraino Toy Museum. Opening hours and access must be checked.
Our editors' tip
A contract of 1712 for the building of the palace required the use of stone from the quarries of Aspra, the seaside district of Bagheria. The majolica floor of one room of the villa, on the other hand, is today in the Diocesan Museum of Palermo.
