What to see in Bagheria, itinerary including the main monuments and places of interest, including Palazzo Butera, Villa Palagonia and Museo Guttuso.
Tourist information
Sicilian town, located along the Tyrrhenian coast south-east of Palermo, Bagheria has a name that seems to derive from the Phoenician term Bayharia, which means degrading area towards the sea.
On the coast of the future Bagheria, also known as Città delle Ville, some watchtowers were built in the fifteenth century around which modest farmhouses were built for the laborers who cultivated the lands of the nobles.
In 1658, with the construction of Palazzo Butera, owned by Prince Giuseppe Branciforti, and the installation of a small noble court that drew sustenance from the prince, the city of Bagheria originated.
In 1769 it was Salvatore Branciforti, prince of Butera and grandson of Giuseppe, who made the first urban plan of the city.
A new building was erected adjacent to the existing building and Corso Butera and the so-called Stradonello, corresponding to the current Corso Umberto I, were traced, and the Mother Church was also built.
What see
In 1797, Ercole Michele Branciforti, son of Salvatore Branciforti, had the Carthusian monastery built in the pine forest behind Palazzo Butera, a neoclassical pavilion intended to host the illustrious guests of the prince.
Inside the Charterhouse there was a curious costume museum with wax figures of Carthusian monks, made by Ferretti, to whom famous personalities of the time also gave face.
Today, the structure abandoned to neglect and decay, has been restored and houses the Pietro Piraino Toy and Wax Museum.
In the eighteenth century, fabulous palaces were built in Bagheria, where the Palermitan nobles spent their holidays in a beautiful natural setting.
Some of these sumptuous eighteenth-century villas are Villa Palagonia, known as Villa dei Mostri, a sumptuous baroque residence full of charm, Villa Sant'Isidoro De Cordoba, which has remained intact in the structure and in the prestigious furnishings, from which you can visit the sumptuous rooms where you it carried out the daily life of the aristocratic owners who lived there.
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Villa Cattolica is a splendid building which houses the museum that collects the works and remains of Renato Guttuso.
