Fontana Pretoria
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Spectacular and theatrical, the Fontana Pretoria is a triumph of marble statues in the centre of Palermo. Made by Tuscan artists, it adorns a square that earned it a popular nickname. Your treasure map takes you to one of the city's most admired, and most talked-about, monuments.
History
The Fontana Pretoria was created around the middle of the 16th century by the Florentine sculptor Francesco Camilliani, originally for the garden of a Tuscan villa. The city of Palermo later bought it: it arrived dismantled in 1574 and was reassembled, by 1581, in today's piazza Pretoria, in front of the city's Senate palace, now the seat of the Comune (city council).
What to see
The fountain has a circular, multi-level plan, with concentric basins, flights of steps and balustrades. It is peopled by dozens of white marble statues of mythological gods, nymphs, sea monsters, allegories of rivers and human figures, in a scenographic ensemble of great effect.
Around the fountain opens piazza Pretoria, overlooked by Palazzo Pretorio and a few steps from the Quattro Canti crossroads and the church of Santa Caterina.
Curiosities
Locals nicknamed the square "Piazza della Vergogna" (Square of Shame): because of the nude statues, so they say, but above all because of the sums, judged scandalous, spent on buying the fountain. Taken apart into hundreds of pieces and shipped from Florence, the fountain was put back together in Palermo by the sculptor's son.
Visiting
You can admire the fountain freely while strolling through piazza Pretoria, in the heart of the historic centre. It is a very short walk from the Quattro Canti, the Cathedral and the other main monuments of central Palermo.
