Teatro di Verdura, Open-air theatre in Palermo, Italy.

Teatro di Verdura is a summer theatre in the ornamental garden of Villa Castelnuovo, near the Favorita park in Palermo. The garden is entered from Viale del Fante through an old gate flanked by two stone sphinxes; beyond it a pavilion with a pronaos has two telamons supporting the architrave. The garden keeps an octagonal fountain with Ignazio Marabitti's statue Armonia and two smaller basins with papyrus and water lilies.

The garden that now holds the theatre belonged to the Prince of Castelnuovo, whose roughly 70,000 m² estate in the Piana dei Colli was sold in the 18th century and split into six plots, including a citrus grove and an ornamental garden. Carlo Cottone inherited it in 1808 and founded a private agricultural institute; Ruggero Settimo inherited it in 1829 and inaugurated the Istituto Agrario in 1847. From 1955 the Opera Pia Castelnuovo owned the park and the Teatro Massimo rented the ornamental garden to create the theatre.

Since 1955 the Teatro Massimo has rented the ornamental garden of Villa Castelnuovo to stage its summer season here; from August 2010 the theatre was entrusted to private bodies at no cost and is no longer run by the Teatro Massimo. The garden itself keeps the layout of the prince's old park, with three cypress-lined avenues.

The entrance is located on Viale del Fante, marked by an ancient gate flanked by stone sphinxes that serve as clear orientation points. Wear comfortable shoes since the terrain is hilly and grassy throughout the garden grounds.

The octagonal fountain at the garden's centre holds Ignazio Marabitti's statue Armonia, commissioned in 1777; two smaller basins beside it grow papyrus and water lilies. The stone sphinxes flanking the Viale del Fante gate and the telamons supporting the entrance pavilion's architrave are part of the same 18th-century layout.