Palazzo del Toscano - Catania

Palazzo del Toscano, in Catania stands in Piazza Stesicoro at the corner with Via Etnea. It was built around 1870 as the town residence of the Paternò Marchesi del Toscano on a project by the Milanese architect Errico Alvino. The Palace was initially built, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, on a project of the distinguished architect Gian Battista Vaccarini, but its construction stopped on the first floor above the large service rooms on the street, punctuated by the black and white stone arches typical of other monuments of the Catania baroque. Inhabited by the Tedeschi Bonadies family, barons of Villermosa, in 1858 it was destined by the last descendant of the family to his nephew Antonino Paternò 1st Marquis of Toscano, who shortly afterwards became the first mayor of Catania, despite the previous statements of Bourbon faith. The Marquis del Toscano, in support of the rise of the family in the United Italy, decided to continue the construction of the building, but altering the overall architecture. After an initial assignment to Poletti from Turin, more respectful of Vaccarini's primitive layout, the marquis entrusted the Milanese architect (but active in Naples) Enrico Alvino who created a compact and severe Neo-Renaissance architecture, but clearly influenced by the artistic eclecticism of the 'Nineteenth century and, at the same time, the taste for the "themed" environments typical of Neapolitan palaces. Alvino's project soon inspired other buildings in the city such as the nearby Palazzo Beneventano della Corte. The decorations and furnishings of the Representation Rooms, as well as the marble coatings and the frescoes of the grandiose staircase of honor, were the care of the eldest heir Giovanbattista Paternò, 2nd Marquis of Tuscany married to a Caracciolo of Naples and also mayor of Catania in alternating periods, including that coinciding with the completion and inauguration of the Massimo Bellini Theater. The best artists available at that time on the Catania square were called for the decorations, from Alessandro Abate to Giuseppe Sciuti. Included in the list of listed architectural heritage (DA 5209 09/02/93)

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Card insertion: Ignatius Caloggero

Photo: Ignazio Caloggero

Information contributions: Ignazio Caloggero, Web 

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