Description
The University Palace is the historic seat of the University of Catania and its rector's office, on the square of the same name along Via Etnea, a few steps from the cathedral. It is a large Baroque building that takes up an entire block and encloses an elegant arcaded courtyard.
The courtyard is a cloister with two stories of arcades, designed by Giovanni Battista Vaccarini around 1730; originally it opened with doors on all four sides of the palace. The Catania painter Giovanni Battista Piparo frescoed the first floor and the vault of the Aula Magna, a sumptuous hall with damask-lined walls.
Behind the academic podium hangs a tapestry with the coat of arms of the House of Aragon. The palace is also home to the university library, with codices, incunabula, manuscripts and autograph letters alongside some 200,000 volumes.
At the end of the 19th century the palace displayed a gallery of 91 portraits of illustrious citizens of Catania, which is now part of the collections of the university's museum system.
The university was founded on October 19, 1434, by Alfonso the Magnanimous, King of Aragon, and for a long time it remained the only one in Sicily. The bull of Pope Eugene IV arrived in 1444, and classes began a year later with just six professors, in a building next to the cathedral.
In 1684 the university moved into the former hospital of San Marco, but the earthquake of 1693 destroyed it along with almost all of Catania. In 1696 work began on the present palace, on the new square laid out at the start of the main street of the rebuilt city.
Several architects worked on it: Francesco Battaglia, his son Antonino and Vaccarini. Earthquakes kept putting it to the test. After the one of 1785 Francesco Battaglia faced the damaged facade with a second wall; after the one of 1818 his son Antonino repeated the system on the sides.
In 1879 the engineer Mario Di Stefano redesigned the ground floor and the entrances on the street.
The courtyard is a cloister with two stories of arcades, designed by Giovanni Battista Vaccarini around 1730; originally it opened with doors on all four sides of the palace. The Catania painter Giovanni Battista Piparo frescoed the first floor and the vault of the Aula Magna, a sumptuous hall with damask-lined walls.
Behind the academic podium hangs a tapestry with the coat of arms of the House of Aragon. The palace is also home to the university library, with codices, incunabula, manuscripts and autograph letters alongside some 200,000 volumes.
At the end of the 19th century the palace displayed a gallery of 91 portraits of illustrious citizens of Catania, which is now part of the collections of the university's museum system.
The university was founded on October 19, 1434, by Alfonso the Magnanimous, King of Aragon, and for a long time it remained the only one in Sicily. The bull of Pope Eugene IV arrived in 1444, and classes began a year later with just six professors, in a building next to the cathedral.
In 1684 the university moved into the former hospital of San Marco, but the earthquake of 1693 destroyed it along with almost all of Catania. In 1696 work began on the present palace, on the new square laid out at the start of the main street of the rebuilt city.
Several architects worked on it: Francesco Battaglia, his son Antonino and Vaccarini. Earthquakes kept putting it to the test. After the one of 1785 Francesco Battaglia faced the damaged facade with a second wall; after the one of 1818 his son Antonino repeated the system on the sides.
In 1879 the engineer Mario Di Stefano redesigned the ground floor and the entrances on the street.