Duchi di Santo Stefano Palace

  

The Palazzo Duchi di Santo Stefano is a large noble building, built between the late 1300s and early 1400s in the shape of a tower palace attached to the town’s walls. It is a masterpiece of Sicilian gothic art, anchored to the ArabNorman practice.

On two façades there is a frieze that forms a magnificent marquetry merlon, thanks to the alternation of lava stone and white Syracusan stone blocks. The double-arched windows on the second floor are very simple. The outside profile of the arches is highlighted by small lava stone blocks.

The doubled-arched trefoil windows on the third floor are also very elaborate and present a sort of three lobe merlon on the left and right of the column; underneath the pointed arch stands the magnificent rose window with ornamental apertures. In 1700, the external staircase that goes from the ground-floor to the second floor was created.

There is still a well in the garden for the collection of rainwater. The original appearance of the fortified building went through some transformations through the various centuries since the building was inhabited by different noble families like the De Spruches, the Dukes of Saint Stephen from Briga and the Princes of Galati. Today the building is the headquarters of the Mazzullo Foundation.

There are numerous works on display by the artist Giuseppe Mazzullo, born February 15th 1933 in Graniti, a small town in the province of Messina, under the cover of the sensational gorges of Alcantara. 

CLICK ON THE ICON FOR THE MAP OF THE EXHIBITION OF GIUSEPPE MAZZULLO: