Castello di Donnafugata
Castello di Donnafugata is a palace in Sicily . It is located about 10 km west of Ragusa .
history
The original construction was commissioned by the Chiaramonte family in the 14th century . Corrado Arezzo Barone di Donnafugata (1824–1895) had the present palace built on the foundations of this property in the second half of the 19th century. It was thoroughly restored at the end of the 20th century.
There are various derivatives for the name Donnafugata (translated: woman on the run). On the one hand, he is associated with a granddaughter of the lord of the castle, who fled the palace with a lover around 1900 in the fog and night. On the other hand, it is derived from the Arabic term ain as jafaiat (Italian: Fonte della salute, German: source of health), as the area around Ragusa, in contrast to the otherwise rather dry region, was rich in spring water. From the Fonte della salute was in the Sicilian Ronnafuata and finally Donnafugata.
building
The square-plan palace is crowned by battlements and has a Venetian main facade with a Gothic loggia.
It has 122 rooms on a floor space of 2500 m². The rooms that are particularly worth seeing include the large library, the coat of arms salon, a hall of mirrors, a billiard salon, a bishop's room with valuable inlaid furniture, the smoking and music room, the women's hall and several chapels and theater rooms.
Outdoor facilities
In the approximately 8 hectare park there are numerous pavilions and artificially created grottos as well as a maze , the pattern of which is an almost exact copy of the maze in Hampton Court Palace . There is also a “fake chapel”, the entrance door of which opened automatically when entering the second step and from which a wooden, mechanical monk appeared to scare and hug the visitors. This “chapel” and the mechanical monk have not been seen since an accident. There is also a cave in the complex, on the ceiling of which the sky is depicted. The park is guarded by stone soldiers.
additional
The Castello di Donnafugata and its lord of the castle Corrado Arezzo are said to have inspired Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa , who often stayed here in his childhood, to write his novel The Leopard . Some scenes of the novel were filmed in the palace. (Another model for the Roman castle Donnafugata is the Palazzo Filangeri-Cutò in Santa Margherita di Belice , summer palace of Giuseppe Tomasi's maternal uncle Alessandro Mastrogiovanni Tasca Filangeri, Prince of Cutò, where the Tomasi family often spent their summer holidays.)
The Donnafugata winery is located in one of the estate's former farm buildings. It is also known beyond the borders of Italy and whose wines have been awarded international prizes.
literature
- Eva Gründel, Heinz Tomek: Sicily. 5th updated edition. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-7701-3476-1 .
Footnotes
- ^ Fulvio Delle Donne: I tempi degli Angioini . In: Marco Bussagli, Luisa Chiap (eds.): Svevi, angioini, aragonesi alle origini delle due Sicilie . Magnus, Udine 2009, ISBN 978-88-7057-221-6 , pp. 181–251, here p. 228.
Coordinates: 36 ° 52 ′ 55 ″ N , 14 ° 33 ′ 51 ″ E