Villa Sofia, Noble villa in central Palermo, Italy.

Villa Sofia is a historic villa at Piazza Salerno 1 in Palermo's Resuttana-San Lorenzo district, now housing a department of the Azienda Ospedaliera Villa Sofia-Cervello. Its south facade has a ground floor marked by classical pilasters and a first floor with an L-shaped terrace and Ionic portico. Inside, a carved wooden staircase leads to rooms with painted ceilings, and a second Basile staircase with floral iron railing is lit by a tall stained-glass window showing Robert S. Whitaker in Renaissance costume.

Built by the Mazzarino marquises, the villa was bought in 1850 by Joseph Whitaker, who enlarged it and named it after his wife Sophia. Beaumont Gardner added a medieval-style tower in 1885, and Ernesto Basile designed the vestibule and main staircase. In 1953 the estate was sold to the Italian Red Cross, which turned it into a hospital.

The villa's name honours Sophia, wife of Joseph Whitaker, who bought the estate in 1850. A plaque on the terrace wall records the tea taken there on 24 April 1907 by King Edward VII, Queen Alexandra and Princess Victoria. The Whitaker coat of arms above the stable arch shows shells, towers and diamonds with the motto "Spes et Fides".

Villa Sofia is an active hospital site of the Azienda Ospedaliera Villa Sofia-Cervello, so the historic rooms and park are not open as a tourist visit; the 1907 memorial plaque on the terrace wall and the Whitaker coat of arms over the carriage arch of the stables can be seen from outside. The park, laid out by Emilio Kunzmann, is largely abandoned and partly built over with hospital pavilions.

Above the carriage-arch entrance of the stables, aligned with the villa's entrance, stands the Whitaker coat of arms: shells, towers, Guelph merlons and lozenges, topped by a horse holding a lozenge between its forelegs, with the motto "Spes et Fides".