THEATERS

The season of the Belle Époque in Palermo has left an indelible and visible mark in the main city theaters such as the Teatro Massimo and the Teatro Politeama. By the architect Gian Battista Filippo Basile, the first is the largest theater in Italy and the third in Europe, with a neoclassical-eclectic style, stands on the areas of the church of Stimmate and the monastery of San Giuliano, which were demolished at the end nineteenth century to make room for the grandiose construction. The second one was designed by the architect Giuseppe Damiani Almeyda, a circus theater in which the semi-cylindrical shape of the façade conceals a horseshoe-shaped hall. The entrance consists of a triumphal arch surmounted by the bronze quadriga of Apollo, the work of Mario Rutelli, which is flanked by two bronze horses. Not less important are the Garibaldi, Biondo, Bellini theaters.