This park exists because a king ran away. In 1798 Ferdinand of Bourbon left Naples in a hurry, with the French at the gates, and took refuge in Palermo, moving the capital of his kingdom there. Then, to make up for the palace he had lost, he had himself an enormous hunting estate by expropriating four hundred hectares from the noble families of Palermo.
What to see
The Royal Estate of the Favorita was created in 1799 and took its name, in all likelihood, from the duchess of Floridia, with whom the king was conducting a secret affair. It served three purposes at once: somewhere cool in summer, a place for agricultural experiments with citrus, olives, ash, walnut and sumac, and a hunting ground, because the wood of holm oak and mastic was full of pheasants, partridges, woodcock and rabbits. As a residence the king had Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia rebuild a small house with an oriental look, which kept that look and took the name of Chinese Pavilion; inside there was even a food lift that brought the dishes from the kitchens straight to the table.
Two long parallel avenues, the Hercules and the Diana, cross the park: laid out for strolling, they are today the roads linking the city to Mondello. The Hercules avenue ends in a neoclassical fountain with a statue of the hero. Inside the park are also villa Niscemi, the Pitrè ethnographic museum, the racecourse and the stadium. With its four square kilometres it is the largest green space in Palermo, and for some years it has formed part of the Monte Pellegrino nature reserve. Not far from the Chinese Pavilion stands an enormous olive tree, eleven metres round the trunk, the oldest tree in the city: its exact age cannot be established, because to count the rings you would have to core the trunk, and the trunk is hollow.
Visiting
The park lies at the foot of Monte Pellegrino, between the city and Mondello. The main entrances are the Porta dei Leoni, in the Libertà quarter, and the Giusino gate towards Mondello. It is public and free; the individual institutions, from the museums to the racecourse, keep their own hours. Half a day.
Our editors' tip
Try lining up what has happened inside here. A king shot partridges in it; at the end of the eighteenth century flight experiments were made here with balloons; during the First World War barracks and an airship base were built on it; at the end of the thirties the Targa Florio was raced through it; and in 1971 there was a rock festival here at which Black Sabbath played in Italy for the first time. No other place in Palermo has changed its trade so often while remaining the same field.