Palazzo Sant'Elia, Baroque palace in Kalsa, Palermo, Italy

Palazzo Sant'Elia is an 18th-century palace in central Palermo, with a white and ochre facade decorated with baroque balconies and carved coats of arms. The building has several decorated halls, two internal courtyards, and grand staircases connecting the floors.

The palace was built in the second half of the 18th century for a wealthy noble family in Palermo. It later passed to the Trigona di Sant'Elia family, whose name it still carries today.

The ceiling paintings inside the palace show scenes from classical mythology and were a deliberate way for noble families to display their wealth and education. Walking through the rooms today, you can still sense how much effort went into making status visible to any guest who entered.

The palace sits in central Palermo and is easy to reach on foot from many parts of the old town. The decorated staircases guide you naturally from floor to floor, so there is no strict route to follow as you move through the halls and courtyards.

The palace's piano nobile frescoes, painted by Gioacchino Martorana and Elia Interguglielmi, are read by some scholars as carrying subtle symbolism of Freemasonry. Look up at the ceiling of the main halls for these painted programmes, which sit above the stucco work of the courtyard and facade.