DESCRIPTION:

We offer for sale an ancient building from the end of the 1600s on the island of Ortigia in Sicily. This ancient stately home is located in one of the most characteristic districts of the historic center and the building follows a perspective line which, facing east, delimits one side of a historic street to ideally unite two important religious buildings or the oldest church built outside land in the city of Syracuse dating back to 326 AD and the former church of the convent of the retreat with its splendid eighteenth-century facade. Built on the foundations of an older building from the Renaissance period, this palace which was originally a wing of the former Carmelite convent and later a private residence, has undergone changes over the centuries both in the facades and in the interiors and is characterized by a large eighteenth-century entrance hall where it is possible to guess by observing stone arches and various architectural details the construction criteria of different eras such as for example what remains of an ancient loggia with an ogival cross vault and with one of the beautiful Renaissance columns still visible; the rest of the loggia in later periods was partly closed with important stone walls in the mid-nineteenth century for housing needs or to obtain useful and functional spaces for the activities of the servants. Even the courtyard was originally undoubtedly larger but today, even if smaller, it has almost maintained its original function. The rooms on the ground floor, now renovated, consist of two independent houses mainly intended for residential and tourist accommodation use. Going up a central masonry staircase, probably also stylistically revisited in several eras, one enters what was once the noble floor and which still today maintains the late nineteenth-century layout and in part that of the early twentieth century almost unchanged. This floor, which still retains a part of the original floor from the end of the 1600s, is also characterized by the presence of several terraces and the most particular one which, following extensions from a distant historical period, is today part of the roof of the Ancient Church of 326 DC: this particular unique and unrepeatable perspective fusion in the historic center of Syracuse which contributes to further characterize this ancient residence. We are within walking distance of other important churches, other noble palaces, the Temple of Apollo and the seafront which is just over a hundred meters away and also a museum dedicated to Archimedes and Leonardo da Vinci. For those wishing to purchase an exclusive residence in one of the most beautiful historic centers in Italy included in the Unesco World Heritage List, this residence may be the solution they are looking for.