They call it the villa of the monsters, and it is the only Italian building that has produced an adjective: palagonian. Goethe came here in 1787, left disturbed, and then put those figures into the Walpurgis night of his Faust. Ever since, the villa has been the obligatory stop for anyone looking in Sicily for something that resembles nothing else.
What to see
Work began in 1715 for the prince of Palagonia, to the design of a Dominican friar who was an architect; the grotesque statues that ring its walls were wanted by his grandson of the same name, a man the town called the necromancer. They are carved in calcarenite, the soft local stone, and represent dwarfs, musicians, animals, creatures that fit no category at all.
Sixty-two of them are left: originally there were about two hundred, and they lined the entrance avenue, which today is a street of the town. The palace has a double flight of stairs and a hall whose ceiling was entirely lined with mirrors, which multiplied and deformed whoever passed beneath.
Visiting
The villa is at Bagheria, half an hour from Palermo by car or train; it has been privately owned since the nineteenth century and is partly open, with a ticket and hours that change with the season. An hour.
Our editors' tip
Inside the hall, raise your eyes to the ceiling and remember what it was for. Guests crossed the wall of monsters, climbed the stairs and then saw themselves reflected, broken up and repeated over their heads. The prince did not collect grotesque figures: he manufactured them, and the last one was you.
