Palazzo Branciforte, Palermo

Reopened to the public in 2012 following an exemplary restoration by Architect Gae Aulenti, Palazzo Branciforte is home to the Fondazione Sicilia and an exhibition center for the historical-artistic collections of the same foundation. Built in the 1500s, the palace houses, on the ground floor, collections of archaeology and majolica, and on the first floor, collections of philately and numismatics, as well as a large library and a group of bronze works.

One room is dedicated to the “Grand Tour” with the exhibition of graphic works and valuable volumes, which testify to the homonymous cultural phenomenon from the second half of the 1700s until the first half of the 1800s. The spaces of the Monte dei pegni di Santa Rosalia are very evocative, with the exceptional wooden structure extending through an entire wing of the palace. In this area, the historic collection of Sicilian puppets by Giacomo Cuticchio is displayed, testimony to the Opera dei Pupi of the Island, declared by UNESCO as an oral and intangible heritage of humanity.