Gravina Pace Palace in Caltagirone
Palazzo Gravina Pace in Caltagirone, also known as the former Bonanno Baroni del Polino house, is one of the most interesting private buildings in Caltagirone.
It rises in Piazza Municipio and, its oldest nucleus, dates back to the years preceding the 1693 earthquake. Palazzo Gravina Pace was built in the early seventeenth century, starting from pre-existing structures including a medieval tower, and has survived, along with a few other buildings, the disastrous earthquake. From its earliest phase it preserves a long corner balcony on twenty-six carved stone corbels , dating back to the 17th century. This Renaissance decoration has an importance not only from an artistic point of view, for its beauty and richness in the details, but it constitutes an important and rare testimony of the state of the art prior to the earthquake that shook the Val di Noto in 1693. Others seven corbels were added at a later date in the part of the façade overlooking the Town Hall square. The intaglio work of the corbels is attributed to Giandomenico Gagini and his son Antonuzzo. There are represented figures of sphinxes, mermaids, monsters and other fantastic animals, as was tradition in all the Baroque-style decorations put in place for similar buildings in the centers of the Val di Noto hit by the earthquake of 1693.
Inside of Palazzo Gravina Pace there are rooms with important decorations by the Vaccaro brothers and numerous relics collected by the famous archaeologist Biagio Pace, grandfather of the current residents. The palace is in fact today the private residence of the Pace-Gravina family.
