Description
The Palazzo degli Elefanti is Catania's City Hall: it closes off the north side of Piazza Duomo, right in front of the Fontana dell'Elefante, with a Baroque facade of rusticated stone, warm-toned plaster, and white stone. Its rooms still house the mayor and the City Council.
It was rebuilt from 1696 on, after the earthquake of 1693 had destroyed the Palazzo Senatorio. Several architects worked on it: the first design is by Giovan Battista Longobardo, while three of the four facades are by Giovanni Battista Vaccarini, the architect of 18th-century Catania.
The facade on Piazza Duomo has a doorway between pairs of granite columns that hold up the great central balcony. Above, statues of Justice and Faith flank the city's coat of arms; on the upper floors, windows and balconies are framed in white Syracuse stone.
Parked in the south entrance hall are two 18th-century carriages. The grander one is a berlin that still, every February 3, carries the mayor in procession to the church of Sant'Agata alla Fornace, for the offering of wax to the patron saint.
The inner courtyard is surrounded by porticoes of five arches on pillars, and here and in the entrance halls finds from various periods and works of contemporary art are on display. In the west entrance hall stands, imposing and solitary, the Pietra del Malconsiglio, a large monolithic block of stone.
On the main floor, a grand staircase designed by Stefano Ittar climbs to the state rooms. Here hang the large canvases of the Catania painter Giuseppe Sciuti, including the Restauratio Aerarii of 1894, in the Salone Bellini, and a Julius Caesar on the staircase landing.
Before it became the city hall, the building that stood here was the loggia where the city's representatives met. Between the 13th and 16th centuries it also hosted sessions of the Sicilian Parliament several times.
On December 14, 1944, a group of protesters against military conscription, mostly young people close to the Sicilian independence movement, set fire to the palace. The city's historical archives and the relics of the Risorgimento Museum housed in its rooms were lost.
The rooms were refurnished in the original style, and the palace reopened on December 14, 1952, exactly eight years after the fire.
Don't miss
• The facade on Piazza Duomo.
• The Senate carriages.
• The Pietra del Malconsiglio.
• The canvases of Giuseppe Sciuti.
Did you know?
• Catania's City Council was once called the Senate: that is why the palace was known as the Palazzo Senatorio.
• The obelisk that now stands on the elephant in the square was also set up for a time in the palace courtyard, before the earthquake of 1693.
It was rebuilt from 1696 on, after the earthquake of 1693 had destroyed the Palazzo Senatorio. Several architects worked on it: the first design is by Giovan Battista Longobardo, while three of the four facades are by Giovanni Battista Vaccarini, the architect of 18th-century Catania.
The facade on Piazza Duomo has a doorway between pairs of granite columns that hold up the great central balcony. Above, statues of Justice and Faith flank the city's coat of arms; on the upper floors, windows and balconies are framed in white Syracuse stone.
Parked in the south entrance hall are two 18th-century carriages. The grander one is a berlin that still, every February 3, carries the mayor in procession to the church of Sant'Agata alla Fornace, for the offering of wax to the patron saint.
The inner courtyard is surrounded by porticoes of five arches on pillars, and here and in the entrance halls finds from various periods and works of contemporary art are on display. In the west entrance hall stands, imposing and solitary, the Pietra del Malconsiglio, a large monolithic block of stone.
On the main floor, a grand staircase designed by Stefano Ittar climbs to the state rooms. Here hang the large canvases of the Catania painter Giuseppe Sciuti, including the Restauratio Aerarii of 1894, in the Salone Bellini, and a Julius Caesar on the staircase landing.
Before it became the city hall, the building that stood here was the loggia where the city's representatives met. Between the 13th and 16th centuries it also hosted sessions of the Sicilian Parliament several times.
On December 14, 1944, a group of protesters against military conscription, mostly young people close to the Sicilian independence movement, set fire to the palace. The city's historical archives and the relics of the Risorgimento Museum housed in its rooms were lost.
The rooms were refurnished in the original style, and the palace reopened on December 14, 1952, exactly eight years after the fire.
Don't miss
• The facade on Piazza Duomo.
• The Senate carriages.
• The Pietra del Malconsiglio.
• The canvases of Giuseppe Sciuti.
Did you know?
• Catania's City Council was once called the Senate: that is why the palace was known as the Palazzo Senatorio.
• The obelisk that now stands on the elephant in the square was also set up for a time in the palace courtyard, before the earthquake of 1693.