The City Hall of Milazzo was designed by engineer Giuseppe Ryolo between the years of 1886 and 1887. The structure was built upon space acquired through the demolition of the eastern wing of an ancient Carmelite convent. The building is a standing representation of the neoclassical architecture popular in that time. The “Palazzo dell’Aquila”, which translates to “building of the Eagle”, a reference to the city’s coat of arms, features a particular distribution of arched openings that, when coupled with the surrounding stone, draw the eyes vertically and create a chiaroscuro effect which accentuates the arches. As the eyes are drawn upward, it concludes to a point featuring a grand clock, created by two lateral sections, as a shallow triangle.
The City Hall
The façade is adorned with celebratory inscriptions. Inside, two large staircases lead to the upper floors where renaissance stuccoes can still be seen in some rooms. The vaulted ceilings of the municipal council hall, frescoed by Menotti Bruno in 1897, were tragically destroyed in the bombings of 1943. Among the artistic relics housed in the town hall is a marble bust of ‘Umberto the first’; it was created by Francesco Greco in 1881. The stylized façade behind and inside the ancient cloister is accentuated by slender pilasters, decorated with Ionian stone capitals.
