Palazzo De Ballis is a fifteenth-century building in Spanish Gothic style in the historic centre of Alcamo, and includes the De Ballis tower. Together with its tower it is considered the town's oldest civil building: according to the historian Pietro Maria Rocca it would date from 1495. It was built for the De Ballis, a noble family from Piacenza, to a design by Tommaso and Pietro Oddo, father and son, from Monreale. After the family died out it passed to the Papè and Polizzi; today the part with the tower belongs to the D'Angelo family and the rest to the Castrogiovanni-Iannitto.
What to see
The tower is square: on the first floor it has an architraved window on small corbels, on the second a three-light window set in a round arch, and at the top a machicolated cornice carrying the battlements, whose merlons rest on small niches with pointed arches. A two-light window looks onto the courtyard on the east side. The main entrance was originally in the centre; in the eighteenth century it was replaced by two doors, at number 21, with a calcarenite portal, and at number 23, from which a staircase climbs to the tower.
The façade has balconies with stone galleries and fluted corbels on the first and second floors. Inside, an elegant courtyard leads to the staircase to the first floor, where the doors are lacquered and the glass panels painted with flowers and figures. The hall has frescoes of multicoloured flowers and landscapes, restored in 1985 by Professor Giuseppe Ganga, with a rosette in the centre of the vault; the bedroom has a canopy bed and a frescoed ceiling.
Visiting
In 2005 the palazzo and tower were restored respecting the original forms, at the D'Angelo family's expense. The palazzo is home to the Musikè cultural association, which organises concerts, exhibitions and dinners and through which guided visits are said to be possible: arrangements and dates should be checked. On the ground floor, on via Madonna dell'Alto, there are now private homes.
Our editors' tip
Look at the corner of the palazzo: there is the De Ballis coat of arms, a banded shield with three balls.
