Villa Valguarnera
Without doubt, this is the most sumptuous villa in Bagheria. Built in 1714, it is situated in an enormous park enclosed within gates and balustrades -- a rarity nowadays for villas. Its splendid rococo decor and sweeping views over the gulf were famed the world over; the villa hosted many notables, including Marie Caroline of Austria, wife of king Ferdinand III, and Stendahl, who wrote that the panorama "drew sounds of the soul, like an arc from a violin." It was here that the world-famous Corvo wine started production. The novelist Dacia Maraini, a descendant of the Alliata di Salaparuta nobility that are now the proprietors, sings the praises (and the mysteries) of this, her childhood ancestral dwelling, in her novels Bagheria and Lunga Vita a Marianna Ucria (Long Life of Marianna Ucria). The latter is a biography of princess Marianna Gravina Valguarnera del Bosco, the founder of the villa. After a costly and painstaking restoration, the villa has been returned to some of its former splendor.
Without doubt, this is the most sumptuous villa in Bagheria. Built in 1714, it is situated in an enormous park enclosed within gates and balustrades -- a rarity nowadays for villas. Its splendid rococo decor and sweeping views over the gulf were famed the world over; the villa hosted many notables, including Marie Caroline of Austria, wife of king Ferdinand III, and Stendahl, who wrote that the panorama "drew sounds of the soul, like an arc from a violin." It was here that the world-famous Corvo wine started production. The novelist Dacia Maraini, a descendant of the Alliata di Salaparuta nobility that are now the proprietors, sings the praises (and the mysteries) of this, her childhood ancestral dwelling, in her novels Bagheria and Lunga Vita a Marianna Ucria (Long Life of Marianna Ucria). The latter is a biography of princess Marianna Gravina Valguarnera del Bosco, the founder of the villa. After a costly and painstaking restoration, the villa has been returned to some of its former splendor.
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