Palazzo Riso — arte contemporanea

The story

Palazzo Belmonte Riso was built at the end of the 18th century on the Cassaro for the Belmonte family, to designs by Venanzio Marvuglia, the busiest neoclassical architect in the Palermo of those years.

The bombing of 1943 left much of it a ruin. For decades it stood abandoned, its street front propped up.

The restoration chose not to erase the wounds: the palace is now Sicily’s museum of contemporary art, and the rebuilt parts stay legible beside the old ones.

Why it is worth it

This is the place to see that Palermo is not only baroque. White rooms hold contemporary exhibitions, and the contrast between the works and walls scarred by the war is part of the design. Even the courtyard alone, with its bookshop and café, is a different kind of pause from the rest of the centre.