Palazzo De Ballis is a 15th-century historical building of

Spanish Gothic architecture Spanish Gothic architecture is the style of architecture prevalent in Spain in the Late Medieval period. The Gothic architecture, Gothic style started in Spain as a result of Central European influence in the twelfth century when late Romanesque ...

; the Tower De Ballis is a part of it. It is located in the town centre of Alcamo, in the province of Trapani.

History

According to the historian

Pietro Maria Rocca Pietro Maria Rocca (24 August 1847 – 26 August 1918) was an Italian historian. Biography He was born from a quite rich family in Alcamo, in the province of Trapani; after he had finished his studies among the Jesuits, he entered the episcopal ...

the palace would date back to 1495. It belonged to the De Ballis family, noblemen native of Piacenza, who built it, and was made after the designs of Tommaso and Pietro Oddo, (father and son) who were from

Monreale Monreale (; ; Sicilian: ''Murriali'') is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, in Sicily, southern Italy. It is located on the slope of Monte Caputo, overlooking the very fertile valley called ''"La Conca d'oro"'' (the Golde ...

(

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

). After the extinction of the De Ballis, and the property transfer to the family Papè and Polizzi, the part including the tower belongs to the D’Angelo family, while the other part belongs to the family Castrogiovanni-Iannitto.Roberto Calia: I Palazzi dell'aristocrazia e della borghesia alcamese; Alcamo, Carrubba, 1997

Description

Giuseppe Polizzi describes the palace in this way: : ''Torre De Ballis, whose upper partis well kept, has a rectangular window, divided into three lights by two small columns and a

mullioned window A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

in the posterior façade, besides a beautiful frame with

Machicolation A machicolation (french: mâchicoulis) is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones or other material, such as boiling water, hot sand, quicklime or boiling cooking oil, could be dropped on attackers at t ...

, sustaining the merlons. Doors with elliptical arches, surrounded by gothic shape leaning on small moulded corbels''. Palazzo_De_Ballis

On the first floor the square tower has a window with an

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can ...

and small corbels; on the second floor, there is a three-light-window inserted into a

round arch An arch is a vertical curved structure that Span (architecture), spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be sy ...

; on the eastern side of the court yard there is a mullioned window. The tower is surrounded by merlons, leaning on little niches sustaining pointed arches. In ancient times the main door was in the middle; in the 18th century it was substituted by two new doors: the one at the street number 21, has a

calcarenite Calcarenite is a type of limestone that is composed predominantly, more than 50 percent, of detrital (transported) sand-size (0.0625 to 2 mm in diameter), carbonate grains. The grains consist of sand-size grains of either corals, shells, ooi ...

portal with two bases surmounted by lesenes; the second, at the number 23, is smaller and has two irregular bases, owing to the restoration of the

road surface A road surface (British English), or pavement (American English), is the durable surface material laid down on an area intended to sustain vehicular or foot traffic, such as a road or walkway. In the past, gravel road surfaces, hoggin, cobbles ...

; you can enter the tower through a staircase from the entrance at the house number 23. On the first floor there are four balconies, two of them have stone galleries with fluted corbels; on the south side, on the second floor, there are two balconies with two stones galleries too; on the ground floor, in via Madonna dell’Alto, there are three doors and three windows of modern residential buildings. The first floor has four small balconies, and another one on the second floor; at the corner there is the De Ballis family’s

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

, with a banded shield having three balls. Inside the palace there is an elegant court yard, with a staircase leading to the first floor; the doors here are

lacquered Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity. Asian lacquerware, which may be ca ...

and their panels with glasses, painted with flowers and different figures. Inside the hall there are some frescoes that were restored by professor Giuseppe Ganga in 1985, representing multicolour flowers and landscapes. The centre of the vault is surmounted by a

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' w ...

, instead, and the bedroom is embellished by a

canopy bed A canopy bed is a bed with a canopy, which is usually hung with bed curtains. Functionally, the canopy and curtains keep the bed warmer, and screen it from light and sight. On more expensive beds, they may also be elaborately ornamental. History ...

and some frescoes on the ceiling. In 2005 the palace and its tower were restored and have complied with the originary characteristics of the building: these works were entirely at the D’Angelo family’s own expense.

Associazione Culturale Musikè

It has its own seat in this building and its purpose is to promote art and music, in order to contribute to the growth and interior beauty, of teenagers above all, through exhibitions, concerts, music and singing courses, music therapy, besides the diffusion of literary subjects and Maths. Another goal is to recover tastes, uses and traditions of our past; they give dinners, and you can also make a guided visit at Palazzo de Ballis.

References

Sources

* Roberto Calia: I Palazzi dell'aristocrazia e della borghesia alcamese; Alcamo, Carrubba, 1997 * Carlo Cataldo: Guida storico-artistica dei beni culturali di Alcamo, Calatafimi, Castellammare del Golfo, Salemi e Vita, Sarograf-Alcamo (1982) * * {{Cite web, url=http://www.comune.alcamo.tp.it/turismo/itinerari/56-i-tesori-del-centro-storico.html, title=comune di Alcamo, access-date=2017-04-30, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403074535/http://www.comune.alcamo.tp.it/turismo/itinerari/56-i-tesori-del-centro-storico.html, archive-date=2015-04-03, url-status=dead * P.M. Rocca: di alcuni antichi edifici di Alcamo; Palermo, tip. Castellana-Di Stefano, 1905 * Giuseppe Polizzi: I monumenti di antichità e d'arte della provincia di Trapani; Trapani, Giovanni Modica Romano, 1879, p. 61

External links