villa lampedusa hotel & residence

Villa Lampedusa is an example of a beautiful suburban residence, adhering to the idea that the court clutching around the Casina Chinese, the summer residence of King Ferdinand IV of Bourbon. It was founded by Don Isidoro Terrasi the early eighteenth century. In 1756 the architect Giovanni Del Frago intervened in some renovations. The current version is the result of the changes made ??to the decline of the classical '700 Alliatas the Principles of Villafranca. The villa stands out for scilistiche choices and architectural solutions, such as the affectation of the decoration of Louis XVI, the kiosk next to the staircase to the second pincer-end statements eighteenth century, the frescoes on the main floor and the lower floor of the remarkable work of tempera Roman painter Gaspare Fumagalli, stucco Serpotta, coffered ceilings frescoed.

In 1845 it was purchased by Prince Giulio Tomasi di Lampedusa IV, with the compensation he had paid the Bourbon government following the expropriation of the island of Lampedusa, where there he set up an observatory to satisfy his ambitions astroscopiche.

Originally, the park of considerable extent also housed a pavilion (Caffe Haus) painted by Fumagalli in 1784.

Fine the solutions chosen for the decoration of the prospectus obtained with fine multicolored squares and green garlands that restored the lively movement to the façade, only one of the villas in the hills. The interior decoration is the triumph of illusion perspective: tromp l'oeil in a monochromatic gray, frescoes of times, walls and sovraporte according to a graceful rococo style, decorated with stucco work, often bend to the influence of neo-classical. In the last century came to families and Dragotto Pitruzzella, who treated the return to primitive patterns of some environments, such as the Lodge and Stables, and in the spirit of full recovery and enhancement of a symbolic place. It 'really the house of the Leopard, the Prince Giulio Fabrizio Tomasi di Lampedusa, and IX Duke of Palma (who inspired the famous novel) in which this aristocratic country house, in the shadow of Mount Pellegrino, spent long periods, even in winter. The villa, in the novel, is described as Salina villa, immersed in the scent of orange blossoms wedding, and surrounded by a harmonious landscape that is well suited to a gentle feeling, the thought of a loner.