Palazzo di Sangiuliano

Culture, Monuments
Via Roccaforte - 95124 Catania

    Palazzo di Sangiuliano is one of the nobilty palaces of the city. It was built between 1738 and 1745 at the request of Paternò Castello’s family, marquis of Sangiuliano, and the works’ organitation and the project was assigned to architect Vaccarini.

    Many famous people have stayed here, including the sons of Vittorio Emanuele II in 1862, Charles Louis and Maria Theresa of Austria in 1880, the monarchs Umberto, Margherita and Vittorio Emanuele in 1881, King Edward VII, Vittorio Emanuele III and Queen Elena in the early twentieth century just to name a few.

    In the early twentieth century, in the building cellar has housed the Macchiavelli theatre, where artists like Angelo Musco and Giovanni Grasso debuted, and in the palace the prestigious Bristol Hotel.

    Currently the rooms are occupied by different commercial activities. The facade is adorned of various colored marbles and has a central door flanked by two marble columns, presumably recovered from the Roman Theatre.

    At the top of the main entrance is placed a double coat with the Paternò Castello’s Family’s seal, who commissioned the palace, and Asmundo’s family’s one, another important patrician family from Catania, which intermarried each other in 1702.