Palazzo Filangeri-Cutò

Filangeri-Cuto palace was built in the seventeenth century by Corberas, a noble family of Spanish origin, in the small Sicilian town of Santa Margherita di Belice. The Palace has inspired Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel "The Gattopardo". The Palace, along with much of the city was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1968. The entrance has a double row with ancestral portraits of Tomasi di Lampedusa dating from 1080. In the '700 the Palace Gardens were planted with exotic palms, bamboo and orange trees, and a large Fountain was stocked with eels from the Belice river, to the board of the Prince. In the nineteenth century, the Palace was home to the Queen Maria Carolina of Naples and Sicily, in exile, and later became residence of the "gattopardo" in person, Prince Alexander III Filangeri. Recognized the tourist and historic value of the old town, the Palace has been the subject of valuation, within the project "Literary Park of Gattopardo".