Bertini Palace a Ragusa
Palazzo Bertini represents one of the most interesting examples of Baroque civil architecture in the Val di Noto.
It was built at the end of the 18th century at the behest of Don Salvatore Floridia along the road "Maestra", the junction point between the upper center and Ragusa Ibla. It was then purchased, around the middle of the nineteenth century, by the Bertini family, from which it takes its name.
The characterizing element of the building are the three masks, which act as the keystone of three arches that originally served as an entrance. According to local tradition, since the building was located on the border between the upper center of Ragusa and Ragusa Ibla, it seemed to play a role of sentinel of the new urban center with its three masks that looked at the passer-by with a mocking and insolent look, almost challenge.
The three masks, made of "pitch stone", depict three characters, almost three caricatures. On the right the rich merchant, with a round face, a large turban and an earring, all symbols of opulence; in the center the noble gentleman, with the haughty gaze of the aristocrat, a thick hair with curls and an elegant hat; on the left the "pitocco", the poor fellow, with a deformed, thin face, a large nose and a toothless mouth.
Different interpretations have been given to the meaning of these three masks, but the most accredited is what sees them as externalization of the human characteristics of power: the power of those who can do everything thanks to their wealth in the figure of the chubby merchant; the political power of the aristocrats in the figure of the noble lord; the power of those who have nothing to lose because they possess nothing in the figure of the "beggar".
