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:The Villa d'Este is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, near Rome, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and especially for its profusion of fountains: the extraordinary system contains fifty-one fountains and nymphaeums, 398 spouts, 364 water jets, 64 waterfalls, and 220 basins, fed by 875 meters of canals, channels and cascades, and all working entirely by the force of gravity, without pumps. It is now an Italian state museum, and is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.
Tivoli had been a popular summer residence since ancient Roman times due to its altitude, cooler temperatures and its proximity to the Villa Hadriana, the summer residence of the Emperor Hadrian I.
The Villa was commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este (1509-1572), second son of Alfonso I d'Este, the Duke of Ferrara and grandson of Pope Alexander VI, along with Lucrezia Borgia.