Stories

Quattro Canti is known both as the “Theatre of the Sun” and the “Crossroads of Spirits.” The square was designed so that at least one of its corners is always lit by the sun. But this was once a place not only for celebrations and processions, but also for executions — hence the old saying, “Feste e forche a Piazza Vigliena”: “Festivals and gallows in Piazza Vigliena.”

Fontana della Vergogna wasn’t originally created for Palermo. For around twenty years, it stood in Florence before being sold to Palermo. The enormous fountain was dismantled into hundreds of pieces, transported to Sicily and reassembled in Piazza Pretoria.