CIVIL ARCHITECTURES

It is impossible not to visit the Palazzo dei Normanni or Palazzo Reale, the seat of the Sicilian Regional Assembly. The palace is the oldest royal residence in Europe, home to the sovereigns of the Kingdom of Sicily, the imperial seat with Frederick II and Corrado IV and the historic Sicilian Parliament; the Quattro Canti, or theater of the sun because the sunrays always illuminate one of the parts of the architectural machine, at the intersection of via Maqueda and the Cassaro, represents a perfect octagon formed by four buildings in which the four statues represented the four saints of the city Agata, Ninfa, Oliva and Cristina, together with the allegories of the four seasons; the Qanat, an Arab hydraulic engineering work; the Palazzo della Zisa, from Al-Aziz, the splendid, was born as a summer residence of the kings, an example of a combination of Arab and Norman art; the Palace of Orleans, the Palace of Cuba; the Castle of Maredolce; the Chinese building; the Palazzo delle poste and the Villino Florio.