The Palazzo delle Poste or Palazzo Postale is a monumental government building, executed in the
stripped classicism
Stripped Classicism (or "Starved Classicism" or "Grecian Moderne") Jstor is primarily a 20th-century Classical architecture, classicist architectural style stripped of most or all Ornament (art), ornamentation, frequently employed by governmen ...
architectural style of the 1920s, originally intended as the mail and telegraph center, located on
Via Roma
Via or VIA may refer to the following:
Science and technology
* MOS Technology 6522, Versatile Interface Adapter
* ''Via'' (moth), a genus of moths in the family Noctuidae
* Via (electronics), a through-connection
* VIA Technologies, a Taiwan ...
#320, in the quarter of
Castellamare in
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 ...
, region of
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
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, 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
Angiolo Mazzoni (May 21, 1894 – September 28, 1979) was a state architect and engineer of the Italian Fascist government of the 1920s and 1930s.
Mazzoni designed hundreds of public buildings, post offices and train stations during the Interwar ...
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 a neighboring building.
The building was damaged by fire in 1988, and reopened for tours in 2017 after restoration.
The building is featured in episode #4, "From Palermo to Mt. Etna" (which premiered on August 26. 2020), of
Great Continental Railway Journeys on the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
and presented by
Michael Portillo
Michael Denzil Xavier Portillo (; born 26 May 1953) is a British journalist, broadcaster and former politician. His broadcast series include railway documentaries such as ''Great British Railway Journeys'' and '' Great Continental Railway Journ ...
.
Architecture
The building
The style of the building is typical of the fascist period and falls under the rubric of Italian Rationalism. It covers an area of 5100 m², which is symmetrically structured around two side
courtyards
A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky.
Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary ...
. The structure is rendered in reinforced concrete and clad in gray marble from Mount Billiemi. The front
colonnade
In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...
is formed by 10 columns each 30 meters high. Also of note is the large elliptical staircase with a diameter greater than 9 meters.
Interiors
The interiors are done in the style of
Futurism
Futurism ( it, Futurismo, link=no) was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such ...
, one of the few examples an interior created as such from the time. All the details were attended to by Mazzoni, such as; the copper-clad doors, the specially designed window handles, the lighting, and the choice of marble and stone, all from Italy except the black stone of the staircase, as he desired.
Most striking perhaps is the conference room, with works by the Futurist painter
Benedetta Cappa
Benedetta Cappa (14 August 1897 – 15 May 1977) was an Italian futurist artist who has had retrospectives at the Walker Art Center and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Her work fits within the second phase of Italian Futurism.
Biography
Bened ...
, Called ''Sintesi delle Comunicazioni (Synthesis of Communication)'' the five murals which measure 6½ ft (2 m) by 10 ft (3.05 m), were painted by Cappa in 1933 and 1934 in tempera and
encaustic (a wax process) on canvas and depict land, sea, air, and telegraphic and radio communications.
[ ] As well as trying to convey the complexity of the Futurist vision, which sought to break free of the burden of history and propel Italy into the future, at the same time they were designed to invoke resonances with the frescoes of ancient
Pompeii
Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...
. In 2014 the murals were loaned for exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
[ There are also two paintings by Tato and another by Piero Bevilacqua, "Radio and television". Finally there is a bronze sculpture by Corrado Vigni, "Diana the Huntress".
The waiting room which precedes the conference room is impressive as well with an intense blue tiling.
Originally on the right side of the building there was a large Victorian beam, as tall as the entire building and also in marble, which was removed at the fall of the fascist regime.]
Gallery
File:Ingresso Palazzo delle Poste.jpg, Entrance
File:Prospettiva scalinata 5.jpg, Staircase
File:Ambiente intermedio 1.jpg, Corridor
File:Sala d'attesa 5.jpg, Waiting room
File:Sala delle conferenze 13.jpg, Conference room
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Palazzo delle Poste Palermo
Fascist architecture
Buildings and structures in Palermo
Rationalism
it:Palazzo delle Poste (Palermo)