OSSERVATORIO ASTRONOMICO DI PALERMO GIUSEPPE S. VAIANA

Texts by Alitalia Arrivederci - Anno XI - N.121 - Edizione Marzo 2000

Palermo The Environs
MONDELLO MONREALE BAGHERIA CEFALU`

They are the family jewels of Western Sicily. Aristocratic playgrounds in times gone by, they have fascinated generations of artists and writers, from Goethe to Dacia Maraini, from Renato Guttuso to Vincenzo Consolo. Today they mirror a history that spans centuries and that the Island is determined to preserve.

Mondello is where Palermitans spend their long, hot summers. In villas with shady gardens extending between Monte Gallo and Monte Pellegrino on what Goethe called "the most beautiful promontory in the world". Mondello lies beyond Parco della Favorita, the vast public park created by Ferdinand III de Bourbon in 1799 when the Napoleonic occupation forced him to abandon Naples and transfer his court to Palermo. The name "Favorita" indicates the king's preference for the villa, which he used as a hunting and fishing lodge as well as for the agricultural experiments that he was so fond of. It took more than a century after the construction of the villa for Mondello to become the luxurious art nouveau bathing center that it is today. The first residences were built in the early eighteenth century, and the coastline and shady avenues leading to the beach are studded with architectural gems such as Villino Lentini, Villa Dagnino and Villa Pojero. But you don't come to Mondello for the splendid architecture; you come to Mondello for the vast white beach, or for a leisurely off-season stroll along the promenade that leads to the town square. Or for an ice cream. That delicious Sicilian gelato, rigorously served in the spongy Sicilian brioscina, accompanied by sweet whipped cream. Mondello's mild climate allows you to sit outdoor nearly all year round, admiring the little pier and its boats from the strategically placed little tables, where it is easy to be tempted by the particular, sweet flavor of pasta with sea-urchin sauce. Or perhaps boiled octopus, served with fresh squeezed lemon; or fried specialties: panelle (chickpea flour fritters), cazzilli (small potato croquets) or quaglie (fried flower cut eggplants), which can be eaten alone, or with the exquisite sesame-seed bread. Mondello is also home to the prestigious Mondello prize for literature. In last season's edition, which honored Alessandro Parronchi, Don Delillo, Paolo Febbraro and Franco Buffoni, Sicilian author Dacia Maraini, who grew up in nearby Bagheria whose name she used for the title of a recent novel, received a special mention.

Bagheria is the fruit of the disdainful retreat of Prince Giuseppe Branciforte from the Palermo court in 1658. He built a splendid villa on the gentle foothills, underlining his contempt for court life with the inscription "Farewell of Court" above the entrance. But his retreat started a new fashion and Bagheria became the summer resort of the Palermo aristocracy. The magnificent mansions built during the 17th and 18th centuries made Bagheria one of Sicily's most evocative sites. Much has been destroyed, as estate lands were broken up and sacrificed to disorderly urban sprawl, and many villas are but memories. Unfortunately, the conservation of our artistic heritage has only recently become an important cause. Perhaps more would have been saved if someone, in these last few decades, had remembered the tears spilled by the Norman Roger de Hauteville, who cried all night after having destroyed the mosques, repositories of rare art and beauty, upon the conquest of Balarm - the Arab name for Palermo. Despite the destruction, Bagheria still conserves some of the most striking examples of an eighteenth-century architecture that never gave up its predilection for the Baroque. Perhaps the most striking, due to its extraordinary position at the center of a terrace and balustrade encircled park, is Villa Valguarnera, whose facade - with its a dramatically imposing double staircase - was designed by Tommaso Maria Napoli. Another gem is Villa Villarosa, with the golden color of its tufaceous stone bricks, designed by Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia, although it is not on par with Marvuglia's eccentric Chinese Palace in Palermo, built in 1799 for King Ferdinand I and his Queen Marie Caroline. The unchained fantasy of Prince Ferdinando Gravina Alliata gave form to the famous sculptures at Villa Palagonia, where he created a menagerie of monstrous figures with improbable bestial and humanoid forms. Apparently, he was struck with the idea while reading Diodoro Siculo's account of the effects of the force of the sun on the med deposited by the Nile, which created incredible forms never seen elsewhere. The ornate golden cornices and mirror-studded vaulting ceilings within the villa are probably homage to the same solar force. While Villa Palagonia must have appeared extravagant to his contemporaries, through the descriptions of Goethe, the eccentricities of the Prince of Palagonia enraptured the German romantics. The culture of contemporary art permeates Bagheria. Painter Renato Guttuso was born here, and bequeathed his collection of works to the town upon his death in1987, where it is displayed in the recently renovated Villa Cattolica, which also displays a collection of 20th-century painters and sculptors. Bagheria's "Museum", an exposition space founded by private citizen, is another testimony to the town's bent for the arts, collecting the works of the most significant Sicilian artists.

Not far away is Monreale, located some 8 kilometers from Palermo, on the road that cuts through the fertile plain once called the Conca d'Oro or Golden Bowl. Much older than either Bagheria or Mondello, the center grew up in the 13th century around a Benedictine abbey that had become an archbishopric in 1183. Its Cathedral is one of the architectural masterpieces of Western Sicily, a splendid example of Norman architecture enriched with arabesque features. The mosaics in the center nave are one of the most fascinating examples of medieval art visible today; for the splendor of their components, their essentiality, and their incredible narrative synthesis. The solemnity of the apses, decorated with braided arches, the elegance of the facade, which reflects retouching by successive generations, and the beauty of the bronze door panels created by Barisano of Trani, could alone justify a visit to Monreale. But perhaps the most moving experience is that of the silent cloisters, which date back to the time of William II, at the end of the 12th century. Some three hundred columns sustain the arches that encircle the garden, some carved, some covered in colorful mosaics. Each one offers a small miracle - an angle of light, a golden detail, an arabesque - while the capital of each column depicts a Biblical figure or story. William dedicated the cathedral to the Virgin Mary, following her annunciation in a dream to tell where the riches of his father were hidden, and had his portrait done here, immortalized in the act of offering the Duomo to his patroness. Within the cloisters you can feel time stretching thin, endlessly unmoved and unmoving, as you are entranced by the delicate sound of water flowing in the little fountain, in the center of the yard. Not far from Monreale is the Benedictine Abbey San Martino delle Scale, traditionally held to have been founded by Saint Gregory the Great in the 16th century. Here too, among courtyards, cloisters, arches and verandas, time seems enchanted, but the students of the Fine Arts Academy housed here quickly bring you back to the present. Who knows if among them is the heir to the most famous of Monreale's artists, Pietro Novelli of the Caravaggio school? A local Spring festival is held at the abbey on the day after Easter in which, among Gregorian chants and organ concerts, the birds rescued by the monks, and wintered in an enormous aviary, are set free. Perfectly profane delicacies complement the sacred bent of Monreale. They produce excellent goat cheeses, such a primosale, and the tasty local ricotta is also used for the fabulous local desserts, such as cannoli, and cassata, which, with its candied fruit and light green almond paste, seems itself an ode to Spring. Another dessert, typical of Monreale, are fried ricotta, sugar and chocolate chip fritters.

Monreale hasn't cornered the market on cannoli, cassata and mosaics though, and Cefalu`, located on the coast towards Messina, is well worth a visit. Antonello da Messina's Ritratto di ignoto, one of the most intriguing paintings of the Italian Rinascimento, is housed there. The gaze of the youth immortalized by Antonello inspired author Vincenzo Consolo to write the short story Sorriso di un ignoto marinaio (The Smile of the Unknown Mariner). Cefalu`'s imposing Duomo dominates the town from the heights of the cliff where King Roger II had it built. The cathedral's solemn facade welcomes us to an austere interior, where light filters through modern stained glass windows designed by Palermitano artist Michele Conzoneri. Your gaze is immediately transfixed by the enormous image of Christo Pantocrator, Christ the Omnipotent, executed by Byzantine masters during the reign of RogerII. Somehow, the knowing gaze of this immense figure that appears to follow you, his hand solemnly raised in blessing, and the position of the cathedral itself all seem to be there to dominate, to demonstrate how all else is but futile and insignificant. It would perhaps please the Prince of Palagonia, were he to know that only the radiant magic of the sun, as it slowly nears the burning sea, can dialog with such majesty.

Marta Ziino