Italy · 17th century
The Palazzo Vermexio, also known as the Palazzo del Senato, is a 17th-century Baroque monumental building located on the island of Ortigia in Siracusa, Sicily, Italy. Facing Piazza Duomo, the building currently serves as the city hall.
The palace was built between 1629 and 1633, with design by Giovanni Vermexio. The architect's stone signature, a lizard, is present in the left superior cornice. The palace was commissioned by the local Senate to replace its old home, located on Via del Consiglio Reginale. The urban palace has typical Sicilian features such as an iron balcony. The façade is also decorated with whimsical decorations of shells and masks. The niches were meant to hold statues of the Kings of Spain, commissioned from Gregorio Tedeschi. The sculptor only completed the coat of arms of the Spanish monarchy above the portal. A third story was added only in the 19th century.
The building now partly serves as a museum hosting in a hall of mirrors the Carrozza del Senato (Carriage of the Senate from 1763) as well as some ancient artifacts found at the site in the 1960s, including elements of a 6th-century Ionic temple, the Artemision previously found at the site.
Text adapted from “Palazzo Vermexio” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Palazzo Vermexio ranks #4,000 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #306 of the 560 mapped in Italy. Founded 1629, it is older than 28% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 721 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. 3 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. It is one of the 32 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Sicily. See how Italy compares in the castle statistics.
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