Quattro Canti, officially known as Piazza Vigliena, is a Baroque square in
Palermo
Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The city is noted for its ...
, region of
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
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,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
; it is considered the center of the historic quarters of the city. The site is the intersection of two major streets in Palermo, the Via Maqueda and the Corso Vittorio Emanuele (also known as the
Cassaro), and at this intersection are the corners of all four of the ancient quarters (Cantons or Canti) of Palermo: the
Kalsa
Kalsa or Mandamento Tribunali is a historical quarter of the Italian city of Palermo in Sicily. It is sometimes referred to as la Kalsa or the Kalsa.
Names
The common name of the quarter, ''Kalsa'', derives from the district's historic Arabic ...
(SE);
Seralcadi (SW);
Albergaria (wW); and
Castellammare (NE). On the southwest corner stands the church of
San Giuseppe dei Padre Teatini. A few steps away along the flank of this church, behind the Southeast corner building, along Via Maqueda is the Piazza and
Fontana Pretoria, sandwiched between this church and
Santa Caterina. A few more steps reaches
San Cataldo and the ancient Norman church of
La Martorana.
About 500 meters west along the Cassaro is the piazza of the
Cathedral of Palermo
Palermo Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Palermo, located in Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy. It is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. As an architectural complex, it is characterized by the pre ...
and the adjacent
Palazzo Normani.
History
This small scale urban plan was laid out on the orders of the Spanish Viceroys between 1608-1620
[The Viceroy in 1608 was Juan Fernández Pacheco, duque de Escalona; there were four further viceroys before 1620.] by
Giulio Lasso and
Mariano Smiriglio.
The piazza layout is octagonal, four sides comprise the streets, while the remaining four sides are nearly symmetric, concave
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...
facades, each with four stories with three full size statues in their centers. The street level up to second story feature four fountains, each dedicated to one the four seasons. The third stories have statues in niches of four Spanish rulers of Sicily; above them in roofline are their respective coat of arms. The fourth and top stories of the buildings have statues of four female patron saints of Palermo:
Christina,
Ninfa,
Olivia and
Agata).
The fountains were completed in 1630: Spring and Summer by Gregorio Tedeschi, while Autumn and Winter were sculpted by Nunzio La Mattina.
The Spanish kings were sculpted between 1661 and 1663 by Carlo Aprile. At the time the piazza was built, it was an early examples of town planning in Europe.
It is a key location in the Wim Wenders film 'Palermo Shooting.'
Gallery
File:Sommer, Giorgio (1834-1914) - n. 1314 - Palermo - Quattro cantoni.jpg
File:DSC00466 - PA - Quattro Canti -1608-1620- - Foto G. Dall'Orto.jpg
File:DSC00455 - PA - Quattro Canti -1608-1620- - Foto G. Dall'Orto.jpg
File:Palermo1(js).jpg, View of North Via Maqueda
Notes
{{Commons category, Quattro canti (Palermo)
Buildings and structures in Palermo
Baroque architecture in Palermo
Piazzas in Palermo