Palazzo Montalto, Syracuse, Italy

Palazzo Montalto was built in 1397 for Maciotta Mergulese. In the 15th century, the Queen of Aragon gave the palace to Filippo Montalto. It was used as a temporary hospital during a cholera epidemic in 1837, and it was used by the Figlie della Carità in 1854.

The palace is built in Chiaramonte Gothic architecture. Its façade is characterized by a number of mullioned windows decorated with flower motifs. It also has a palline losanghe cornice, similar to the one found at Palazzo Falson in Mdina, Malta.

The portal is topped by an aedicula containing a marble slab with an inscription and the date of construction.

References:

Wikipedia

Palaces, manors and town halls in Italy

User Reviews

Jennifer Delimata (12 months ago)
Interesting place.

Dario Scarfì (Dario_s) (2 years ago)
It is the most important palace of Chiaramontana gothic architecture in Sicily

andrea lapira (2 years ago)
Very beautiful

Angelo Causarano (2 years ago)
Singular style building, appreciable restoration work

Aldo Damiano (3 years ago)
Palazzo Mergolese Montalto was erected by Maciotta Mergolese in 1397 with the best Maestranza in Syracuse. As stated in the dedication in Latin placed above the portal: In the fifteenth century. The palace was donated by the Queen of Aragon to Filippo Montalto. In 1837 at the time of cholera, the Palace housed a temporary hospital, and in 1854 the daughters of Charity. The palace today preserves the façade intact with the arched portal and on the upper floor mullioned windows and mullioned windows with an ornate vegetable and zigzag motif, a sober example of the Gothic-Chiaramonte style which preserves the Arab and Swabian characters unchanged; the motif of the delightful aedicula which houses the family inscription and coat of arms is more sought after.

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The famous Italian Medici family have given two queens to France: Catherine, the spouse of Henry II, and Marie, widow of Henry IV, who built the current Luxembourg palace. Maria di Medici had never been happy at the Louvre, still semi-medieval, where the fickle king, did not hesitate to receive his mistresses. The death of Henry IV, assassinated in 1610, left the way open for Marie's project. When she became regent, she was able to give special attention to the construction of an imposing modern residence that would be reminiscent of the Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens in Florence, where she grew up. The development of the 25-hectare park, which was to serve as a jewel-case for the palace, began immediately.

The architect, Salomon de Brosse, began the work in 1615. Only 16 years later was the palace was completed. Palace of Luxembourg affords a transition between the Renaissance and the Classical period.

In 1750, the Director of the King's Buildings installed in the wing the first public art-gallery in France, in which French and foreign canvases of the royal collections are shown. The Count of Provence and future Louis XVIII, who was living in Petit Luxembourg, had this gallery closed in 1780: leaving to emigrate, he fled from the palace in June 1791.

During the French Revolution the palace was first abandoned and then moved as a national prison. After that it was the seat of the French Directory, and in 1799, the home of the Sénat conservateur and the first residence of Napoleon Bonaparte, as First Consul of the French Republic. The old apartments of Maria di Medici were altered. The floor, which the 80 senators only occupied in 1804, was built in the middle of the present Conference Hall.

Beginning in 1835 the architect Alphonse de Gisors added a new garden wing parallel to the old corps de logis, replicating the look of the original 17th-century facade so precisely that it is difficult to distinguish at first glance the old from the new. The new senate chamber was located in what would have been the courtyard area in-between.

The new wing included a library (bibliothèque) with a cycle of paintings (1845–1847) by Eugène Delacroix. In the 1850s, at the request of Emperor Napoleon III, Gisors created the highly decorated Salle des Conférences, which influenced the nature of subsequent official interiors of the Second Empire, including those of the Palais Garnier.

During the German occupation of Paris (1940–1944), Hermann Göring took over the palace as the headquarters of the Luftwaffe in France, taking for himself a sumptuous suite of rooms to accommodate his visits to the French capital. Since 1958 the Luxembourg palace has been the seat of the French Senate of the Fifth Republic.

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