Museo Riso

The historic residence of Palazzo Belmonte Riso, built in the late eighteenth century by the Ventimiglia Princes of Belmonte, is an interesting example of a noble private residence that combines magnificent late Baroque to neoclassical rigor. It is located along the ancient Cassaro, opposite the sumptuous Piazza Bologna, on the site of an earlier "big house" owned by Plagued family. The reconstruction work ordered by Giuseppe Emanuele Ventimiglia, Prince of Belmonte, where the building comes in succession through dowry steps are started in 1777 and concluded in 1784 under the direction of Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia. In 1841 the Palace is sold to the Maritime Captain John Rice, whose son, Peter Rice, awarded the noble title of Baron, will affix the insignia of the family coat of arms on the marble, the work of the sculptor Ignazio Marabitti, surmounting the entrance: a arm supporting a sheaf of wheat. In 1933 the palace became the seat of the Federation of Fasci Palermitani and in 1943, during World War II, is almost destroyed by the allied forces bombing. After years of neglect, in 1986 it bought by the Sicilian Region which will start the restoration work. Ancient residence survives the imposing stone facade tuff, punctuated by five arches on the ground floor, balconies and shelves on the upper floors, as well as some structural elements of the courts and the large halls. The restoration, carried out by the regional administration in the nineties, he returned a monument to the city and created a new functional space and usable headquarters, since 2005, the Regional Museum of modern and contemporary art.