Bellomo Palace Regional Gallery, Syracuse, Italy

Bellomo Palace Regional Gallery is situated in the premises of Bellomo Palace. The origins of the palace have been traced to the 12th century, the time of Hohenstaufen rule of Sicily. The palace still features a number of unusually well-preserved elements from this time. The main facade, as well as the basement and ground floor, still essentially retain the 12th-century appearance of the building.

Alterations were made in the 14th century and on a larger scale during the 15th century, when it belonged to the Bellomo family from which it derives its name. From this period, a number of details such as portals, mullioned windows and the staircase display influences from Catalan Gothic, a style which was popular on Sicily at the time (as Sicily was at the time part of the Crown of Aragon).

In the 18th century the palace and the neighbouring Parisio Palace were taken over by a Benedectine monastery who merged the buildings into one. In 1866 the palace was expropriated by the Italian state and serves as a museum since 1940. A renovation was carried out in 2004-2009.

References:

Wikipedia

Museums in Italy

User Reviews

Stefano Borg Olivier (11 months ago)
Interesting, well displayed artifacts. Definitely worth a visit.

Frans van Avendonk (11 months ago)
Beautiful palace, interesting collection and helpful staff

Roderick de Groot (2 years ago)
A bit boring museum .... Expensive €8 pp and we were out in ten minutes.... but if you like Christ and Maria paintings.... it must be great

jenny derrett (2 years ago)
Hi, we visited this lovely museum today.The ancient building has been expertly renovated and now holds an exceedingly beautiful collection of religious artwork.Although not a fan of such art,this is of the best Renaissance and preRenaissance quality..so enjoyed the faces,textiles, story telling in the context of the airy and spectacular building .(.which like a jewellery box holds captivating sculptures and images..) if you like horror go thick look out for the small but terrifyingly real images of the plague pit! V welcome ing staff too..enjoy ☺

gianfranco silvestri (2 years ago)
In the courtyard of the museum you can watch a couple of middle age gravestones with Jewish fonts: it's the evidence of the tolerance in the Sicilian society during the Arab and Normandy age, when the Jews had the possibility to pray and to show openly their faith and culture

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Angelokastro is a Byzantine castle on the island of Corfu. It is located at the top of the highest peak of the island"s shoreline in the northwest coast near Palaiokastritsa and built on particularly precipitous and rocky terrain. It stands 305 m on a steep cliff above the sea and surveys the City of Corfu and the mountains of mainland Greece to the southeast and a wide area of Corfu toward the northeast and northwest.

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