Villa San Marco

Built in 1673 around a pre-existing 16th century watchtower for the control of “cannamele” (sugar cane) plantations. The designer was the architect Domenico Cirrincione, a Dominican friar, commissioned by Vincenzo Giuseppe Filingeri, Count of San Marco, Prince of Mirto and Grandee of Spain. It is a rare example of civil architecture in the Mannerist style, which blends military elements (corner ramparts, merlons, drawbridge, high boundary walls), with features typical of residential architecture (monumental double-flight staircase, balconies, chapel). Two monumental portals lead to the enclosed gardens, called “floretta” and “fruttiera”, where there are trees of monumental dimensions. During the Second World War the writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, cousin of the Filingeris on his mother’s side,

The Villa, privately owned, is located in the municipality of Santa Flavia, near Bagheria.