LOCATION FILE
Villa Palagonia, Bagheria — the villa of monsters
FOLLOWBagheria, Sicily
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OVERVIEW
Villa Palagonia, known as the villa dei mostri, is an 18th-century walled villa in Bagheria, typically baroque, with grotesque and fantastic statues that drew travellers and artists including Goethe and Salvador Dalí. It was begun in 1715 for Ferdinando Francesco I Gravina Cruyllas, Prince of Palagonia, by the Dominican architect Tommaso Maria Napoli; the lower buildings date from 1737 and the decoration from 1749.
HISTORY
The legends of the stone 'guardians'' evil influence over people — a belief long held that they could cause miscarriages or monstrous births in pregnant women — together with the enormous cost of the project and its well-known oddities inside, fed the prince's reputation for madness and a cursed aura.
REPORTED ACTIVITY
LEGEND. The Italian article says that reputation did not match the man: the archives show a clear-headed royal chamberlain and grandee of Spain who held important offices. The belief about the statues is recorded; no case is.
VISITING
In Bagheria, Sicily.
SITE PLAN
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EXTERNAL RESOURCES
INVESTIGATION RECORD
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COMMUNITY EVIDENCE
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GROUP FINDINGS