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Palazzo Delle Poste, Catania
The Palazzo delle Poste is an notable building, called a palace, but built for and still housing postal offices. It stands on the west corner of Via Etnea, #288, where it intersects with the start of the Giardino Bellini. The postal building is a neo-baroque creation of the architect Francesco Fichera. Construction began in 1922 and were complete only in 1930. The three facades, along via Etnea, via Angelo Litrico, and via Sant'Euplio are similar. All contain a rusticated ground level set upon a base of dark lava stone. The ground floor is an row of arches, each with a keystone marked by a grotesque mask. The second floors have convex balconies framed by pilasters surmounted by a tympanum with a broken pediment. Behind the balconies are tall glass doors with delicate frames. The decoration throughout is often playful and imaginative. At the northeast corner, some of the decorations are cornucopias, but others appear to resemble complex starfish. The tympanum at this corner has a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giardino Bellini
The Giardino Bellini (also known as Villa Bellini; English translation: "Bellini Garden") is the oldest urban park of Catania. It occupies 70.942 m². History Before the construction of a public garden, the area was occupied by the garden maze or labyrinth owned by the Ignazio Paternò Castello, prince of Biscari. In 1854, the Comune di Catania bought the area of the maze, and in 1864 started to adapt the area into a public garden. Starting from 1875, the municipality acquired several further areas surrounding the maze, and two years later the work to unify these areas was undertaken. A guide from 1867 reports the gardens housed swan and geese, deer and cows, an aviary, and an enclosure of monkeys. The park has a white marble bust depicting Vincenzo Bellini and completed by Tito Angiolini. The Giardino Bellini was finally inaugurated in 1883. See also *Giardino Pacini References Further reading * * * * * External links Giardino Belliniat the Botanical Departement's websi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baroque Architecture
Baroque architecture is a highly decorative and theatrical style which appeared in Italy in the early 17th century and gradually spread across Europe. It was originally introduced by the Catholic Church, particularly by the Jesuits, as a means to combat the Reformation and the Protestant church with a new architecture that inspired surprise and awe. It reached its peak in the High Baroque (1625–1675), when it was used in churches and palaces in Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Bavaria and Austria. In the Late Baroque period (1675–1750), it reached as far as Russia and the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in Latin America. About 1730, an even more elaborately decorative variant called Rococo appeared and flourished in Central Europe. Baroque architects took the basic elements of Renaissance architecture, including domes and colonnades, and made them higher, grander, more decorated, and more dramatic. The interior effects were often achieved with the use of ''quadratura'', or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francesco Fichera
Francesco, the Italian (and original) version of the personal name "Francis", is the most common given name among males in Italy. Notable persons with that name include: People with the given name Francesco * Francesco I (other), several people * Francesco Barbaro (other), several people * Francesco Bernardi (other), several people *Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439-1501), Italian architect, engineer and painter * Francesco Berni (1497–1536), Italian writer * Francesco Canova da Milano (1497–1543), Italian lutenist and composer * Francesco Primaticcio (1504–1570), Italian painter, architect, and sculptor * Francesco Albani (1578–1660), Italian painter * Francesco Borromini (1599–1667), Swiss sculptor and architect * Francesco Cavalli (1602–1676), Italian composer * Francesco Maria Grimaldi (1618–1663), Italian mathematician and physicist * Francesco Bianchini (1662–1729), Italian philosopher and scientist * Francesco Galli Bibiena (1659 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grotesque (architecture)
In architecture, a grotesque () or chimera () is a fantastic or mythical figure used for decorative purposes. Chimerae are often described as gargoyles, although the term gargoyle technically refers to figures carved specifically as terminations to spouts which convey water away from the sides of buildings. In the Middle Ages, the term ''babewyn'' was used to refer to both gargoyles and chimerae. This word is derived from the Italian word ''babuino,'' which means "baboon". A grotesque is a decorative feature found in architecture carved from stone often depicting whimsical, mythical creatures in dramatic or humorous ways. Most commonly grotesques are a decoration that surround waterspouts and drains largely on historic buildings. Grotesques, also often referred to as chimera, have historically been a key element of architecture in many periods including the Renaissance and Medieval periods and have stylistically developed in conjunction with these times. While they depicted a wide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tympanum (architecture)
A tympanum (plural, tympana; from Greek and Latin words meaning "drum") is the semi-circular or triangular decorative wall surface over an entrance, door or window, which is bounded by a lintel and an arch. It often contains pedimental sculpture or other imagery or ornaments. Many architectural styles include this element. Alternatively, the tympanum may hold an inscription, or in modern times, a clock face. History In ancient Greek, Roman and Christian architecture, tympana of religious buildings often contain pedimental sculpture or mosaics with religious imagery. A tympanum over a doorway is very often the most important, or only, location for monumental sculpture on the outside of a building. In classical architecture, and in classicising styles from the Renaissance onwards, major examples are usually triangular; in Romanesque architecture, tympana more often has a semi-circular shape, or that of a thinner slice from the top of a circle, and in Gothic architecture they ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liberty Style
Liberty style ( it, Stile Liberty) was the Italian variant of Art Nouveau, which flourished between about 1890 and 1914. It was also sometimes known as ''stile floreale'', ''arte nuova'', or ''stile moderno''. It took its name from Arthur Lasenby Liberty and the store he founded in 1874 in London, Liberty (department store), Liberty Department Store, which specialized in importing ornaments, textiles and art objects from Japan and the Far East. Major Italian designers using the style included Carlo Bugatti, Raimondo D'Aronco, Eugenio Quarti, and Galileo Chini. The major event of the style was the Prima Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Decorativa Moderna, 1902 Turin International Exposition, which featured by works of both Italian designers and other Art Nouveau designers from around Europe. Liberty style was especially popular in large cities outside of Rome which were eager to establish a distinct cultural identity, particularly Milan, Palermo and Turin, the city where the first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rationalism (architecture)
In architecture, Rationalism is an architectural current which mostly developed from Italy in the 1920s and 1930s. Vitruvius had claimed in his work ''De architectura'' that architecture is a science that can be comprehended rationally. The formulation was taken up and further developed in the architectural treatises of the Renaissance. Eighteenth-century progressive art theory opposed the Baroque use of illusionism with the classic beauty of truth and reason. Twentieth-century Rationalism derived less from a special, unified theoretical work than from a common belief that the most varied problems posed by the real world could be resolved by reason. In that respect, it represented a reaction to Historicism and a contrast to Art Nouveau and Expressionism. The term ''Rationalism'' is commonly used to refer to the wider International Style. Enlightenment rationalism The name Rationalism is retroactively applied to a movement in architecture that came about during the Age of Enli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palazzo Delle Poste, Palermo
The Palazzo delle Poste or Palazzo Postale is a monumental government building, executed in the stripped classicism architectural style of the 1920s, originally intended as the mail and telegraph center, located on Via Roma #320, in the quarter of Castellamare in Palermo, region of Sicily, Italy. The modern building is bordered on the north by the church of the Sant'Ignazio all'Olivella and the adjacent Regional Archeologic Museum, while Piazza San Domenico is a few blocks to the south. History The building was designed by the rationalist, and later fascist, government architect Angiolo Mazzoni in the early 1920s. Construction was begun on the structure in 1929 and the building was inaugurated in 1934 with the Italian government's communications minister Umberto Puppini in attendance. The Palermo flood occurred from February 21–23, 1931 while the building was being constructed and during that time a large crane which was being used to erect the post office collapsed onto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palazzo Delle Poste, Naples
The ''Palazzo delle Poste'' (Italian: "Post Office Palace") is located in Piazza Matteotti in central Naples. It is an example of architecture completed during the fascist government of Benito Mussolini. Another such example is the nearby '' Palazzo della Casa del Mutilato'' and the adjacent Palazzo della Questura (Police Headquarters) on via Medina. Just north and across the street on via Monteoliveto is the 16th-century Palazzo Orsini di Gravina. To make way for the building, houses from the ''rione'' of San Giuseppe-Carità were demolished in 1930. Construction began in 1928 under Costanzo Ciano, head of the Ministry of Communications; when finally completed in 1936, it was inaugurated by the then minister Antonio Stefano Benni. The design was by the Bolognese architect Giuseppe Vaccaro, and was influenced by the Rationalist style of Italian architecture promoted by Marcello Piacentini. The architect Gino Franzi modified and completed the final building. The design i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garage Musumeci, Catania
The Garage Musumeci is an notable building, elaborated in a flamboyant Liberty style, and built to house both an automobile showroom on the ground floor and above the apartments of the owner, Baron Musemeci. It is located in Piazza Bovio, at the intersection of Via Conte di Torino and Via Francesco Crispi, in the city of Catania, region of Sicily, Italy. The building was designed by Francesco Fichera, who also designed the Palazzo delle Poste, Catania, Palazzo delle Poste in Catania. The elaborate design was maligned during the Fascist era by Pietro Maria Bardi and the architects of Rationalism (architecture), MIAR (Movement for Italian Rational Architecture). The facade has a chamfered corner with a large rounded corner balcony. The walls contain colorful gilded mosaics and large face masks. The ground floor houses a shop selling car parts and accessories. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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