Art and monuments in Terrasini
Terrasini’s monuments and architectural emergencies tour starts from the central and wordly Piazza Duomo, a large rectangular urbanistic space, with, on the background, the majestic Cathedral dedicated to the Virgin, Maria Santissima delle Grazie, Terrasini’s patron.
F.P. Evola, illustrious scholar and priest, described the Duomo with an important evidence: “On the terrace of a long series of steps [...] rises our church, between the bell tower and the clock tower, with a double columns order on the front, a central niche where the Madonna delle Grazie stands, and two bases on the sides with Saints Joseph and Peter statues. The inside, accessible thanks to three doors opened in front of the square, looks like the romanic church style; with a nave and two aisles that cross, as a latin cross, the transept. [...] Who came here the first time is surprised for the beauty; lightness of structure, brightness of white walls with frames between ash-coloured fasce, simple stucco lines and bright-gilded rose windows.” The entitling to the Virgin is due to the Baron of Gazzara.
Sideways the Duomo there is a little green lung, the villa San Giuseppe, that often hosts a Terrasini artcrafts exhibition.

Bending our gazes to the sea, we set off for it to come up against many important historical buildings, feudal evidences of the local nobility: the Palazzo Cataldi, seat of the“Claudio Catalfio” Town Libraryin via Benedetto Saputo, and the eighteenth-century castle of the La Grua Talamanca Princes, today seat of the Town Hall, in piazza Borsellino e Falcone. Unfortunately this building was wickedly recasted and prived of its original splendour. In the center of the square, in front of the Palazzo La Grua, there is the Monument to our Fallen, erected by Terrasini’s people living in Detroit, that portrays a quadrangular marble stone in which are carved the names of the people from Terrasini died during the two big wars of the last century. The stone is surmounted by a winged figure, probably a kind of Nike, goddes of victory, with a laurel wreath in the hand.
Going on our walk, we go over the airy viale delle Rimembranze, arriving to the panoramic Lungomare Peppino Impastato, on which rises up the majestic Palazzo D’Aumale, seat of the Regional Museum of Natural History and permanent display of the sicilian cart (click on the link to see details).

Let’s move now in the green and luxuriant outskirts in which, almost hided by orange, lemon and olive groves, there are some architectural jewels.
First of all, the elegant Villa Fassini, a Liberty (Art Nouveau) style jewel, ascribed to the great architect Ernesto Basile. The villa, belonged to the Florio sicilian family, was also a meeting place, in the seventies, of a large and important hippy community, formed by youngs from all Italy and Europe.
Moreover, in Contrada Bagliuso, under the imposing mountain range rising above the city, there are the eighteenth-century Gazzara Castle, belonged to the powerful local Barony, and the typical Senia, expression of the material rural culture: an instrument used for the irrigation of the fields, used since the Arab period. It’s a circular stonework, in which there are many irrigation mechanism started by the strenght of working animals (oxen or horses) that used to go yoked around the stonework.