Palace of the Marquises D’Amico

Built in 1572, renovated between 1733 and 1735 by Francesco Arena and modernised by Antonio D’Amico, with works partially executed on the date of 1774, the year of the death of the owner of the time, the Palazzo D’Amico, located on the Garibaldi seafront, is certainly one of the few eighteenth-century testimonies of the sea front of the Historic Center of the City.

The city residence palace of one of the major noble families of Milazzo was part, in the eighteenth century, along with the Palazzi Ventimiglia, Carrozza and Riolo of the most representative mansions.

From the architectural point of view, the Palace presents a very compact volume, with a front on the Garibaldi seafront at three elevations above ground and a front on the via Scopari at two elevations above ground, while the other two fronts are at the border and have openings in the upper part with servos for views or lights.

To give more brightness to the rooms, the building has two internal cloisters that flank the east and west fronts of the staircase.

The Palace originally had two elevations; at the beginning of the eighteenth century it was elevated and redefined in the decorative party on the Lungomare Garibaldi to give greater aesthetic qualities in relation to the times, but, above all, representation and social presence at the main building. From the distributive point of view it presents large rooms on the ground floor, which seem to be of ancient origin and used for horses and carriages and also for accommodation of stable men or coachmen; “a noble plan” of representation with frescoed rooms and floors partly original ceramic, a second elevation used for sleeping area, for the offspring and for the servants. In the context between the two floors, there are now also half-floors and secondary rooms, born for specific needs of the owners who have succeeded each other over time. It has been submitted to protection and constraint for the relevant historical-artistic interest.

The large door is framed by a beautiful portal, flanked by two Tuscan semicolumns that support the wide ballatoio frame of the large central balcony. It is in the lintels of the two balconies that flank it that you find the pagoda motif that can be seen in the Church of the Carmine Convent. Stucco and frescoes of considerable workmanship were contemporaries to a chapel with lavish ornamentation, fine expression of the local “rococo”.

From October 2001, the Palace was renovated and then donated to the city in all its splendor, enriched inside with thousands of volumes that constitute the Municipal Library.

Recovery project arch. Antonino Giardina UTC Milazzo 2001/2005 (received a Special Mention from Europa Nostra Awards 2006).