One of Palermo’s most famous fountains is seen by almost everyone who walks along Via Maqueda. In Piazza Pretoria—known to many locals as Piazza della Vergogna (the Square of Shame)—stands a monumental fountain filled with nude figures. Locals often refer to it as the Fountain of Shame, or Fontana della Vergogna.
The story of the fountain begins in sixteenth-century Florence. For about twenty years, it adorned the garden of a Spanish nobleman who, like many others of his time, eventually fell on hard times. Deciding to sell the fountain, he set an enormous price for it, and only the city of Palermo was willing to make the purchase.
The fountain was dismantled into hundreds of pieces and transported to Sicily, where it was reassembled in the square facing the Monastery of Saint Catherine.
At the time, Palermo was struggling with plague, famine, and widespread poverty. According to a popular local legend, the citizens were outraged by such an extravagant purchase and began shouting, “Shame! Shame!” Fearing the authorities, however, they claimed that what offended them was not the expense, but the nudity of the statues standing in front of the monastery.
Whether the story is entirely true or not, the nickname remained, and both the square and the fountain are still associated with it today.