Manganelli palace

Built by the Tornabene family in 1400, passed to the Sigona family, it was sold in 1505 to don Alvaro Paternò praetor and senator of Catania, Ambassador to the Queen, the Viceroy and the United Parliaments etc. at the time the palace had only one floor and was in Catalan style. Heavily damaged in the earthquake of 1693, it was rebuilt by Don Antonio Paternò VI Barone dei Manganelli with the architects Alonzo Di Benedetto and Felice Palazzotto. The Garibaldini in 1860 sacked the palace, destroying the eighteenth-century furniture. The Palazzo was restored and enlarged in the second half of the nineteenth century with the addition of the second floor (where today there is an excellent hotel), the interiors were richly redecorated in the style of the time according to new architectural concepts, where the famous Catania painter Giuseppe worked Sciuti, all on the impulse of Princess Angela Paternò of Manganelli Torresi.

Currently the Palace has a façade in pure late Baroque / Rococo style, the hanging garden is splendid, very famous in the city of Catania, extended on two levels joined by a romantic staircase with two fountains and a nymphaeum, which rests on a part of the ancient city walls now demolished. In the twentieth century from the Paternò family, the Palace came to the Borghese Princes of Rome for the marriage of Donna Angela Paternò VII, princess of Sperlinga dei Manganelli, lady-in-waiting of the Queen of Italy, Maria José of Savoy, with Don Flavio Principe Borghese XII, Prince of Sulmona. currently it is owned by the descendants, Princes Borghese who use it as a residence.