Palazzo Palmerini (formerly ''Mastrandrea'') is a 16th century civic building located in
Alcamo, in the
province of Trapani:
the Palace is situated at Via Buonarroti.
History
The ownership of this mansion to the Mastrandrea family is deduced from the deed drawn by the notary Aversa on 16 June 1562. The historian
Pietro Maria Rocca, from
Alcamo, mentions some notarial contracts, between 1533 and 1534, which testify that the tower was built in this period.
[P.M. Rocca: Di alcuni antichi edifici di Alcamo; Palermo, tip. Castellana-Di Stefano, 1905]
After the Mastrandreas, the owners were the Tornamiras, and finally the Palmerinis.
Description
The building dates back to the late Middle Ages. It has a battlement tower and was built for the prestige of the family that built it. The tower, with
corbels at
Machicoulis
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 ...
(as in the architecture of the time),
[Roberto Calia: I Palazzi dell'aristocrazia e della borghesia alcamese; Alcamo, Carrubba, 1997] is located at the corner between Via Buonarroti and Via Madonna dell'Alto; the corner, made with
ashlars
Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruvi ...
on which the
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 ...
(represented by a shield with the shape of a horse head with a stripe in the middle of it, surmounted by a star) is placed,
[ is a particular one.
On the ground floor of via Buonarroti there are three entrances: one is 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 ...
; there are two windows on its sides. On the first floor are a window and two balconies with stone corbels, and a recent one with a marble gallery which is sustained by iron supports.[ Its portal is 16th century in style.
As the historian ]Francesco Maria Mirabella
Francesco Maria Mirabella (Alcamo, 4 April 1850 – Alcamo, 27 December 1931) was an Italian historian, educator, and poet.
Biography
He was born in Alcamo (in the province of Trapani): his father was Ludovico Mirabella, an ebonist and sculptor ...
affirms, after the Jesuits
The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
came back to Alcamo in 1806, the Municipality had to give the Collegio back to them, and then decided to rent the palace of Mastrandreas, that belonged to signor Benedetto Palmerini at that time.[Francesco Maria Mirabella: Alcamensia noterelle storiche con appendice di Documenti inediti p.28; Alcamo, ed. Sarograf, 1931]
Between 1835 and 1841 the building was divided into different parts by the owner, signora Orofino Palmerini, and leased to four families simultaneously.[
]
References
Sources
*Roberto Calia: I Palazzi dell'aristocrazia e della borghesia alcamese; Alcamo, Carrubba, 1997
*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
*Francesco Maria Mirabella: Alcamensia noterelle storiche con appendice di Documenti inediti p. 28; Alcamo, ed. Sarograf, 1931
See also
* Palazzo De Ballis
* Alcamo
* Pietro Maria Rocca
Buildings and structures in Alcamo
Buildings and structures completed in the 16th century
16th-century establishments in Italy