One of my absolute favorite parks in Palermo is Villa Giulia — the city’s first public park. In fact, I’m writing this right here, tucked away in the cool shade of the cypress trees.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once called it “the most beautiful corner of the earth.” They say he loved coming here to walk and read Homer.
A few centuries ago, parks belonged to churches and aristocratic palaces. Villa Giulia became the first public park in Palermo and one of the first in Italy created for everyone. It’s almost impossible to describe the whole place in just a few paragraphs. There are elegant buildings, fountains, remarkable plants, and even a small open-air theatre. I’ll just stop at a few of my favorite spots.
In the center of the park, near the theatre area, you’ll find an unusual fountain. The figure of Atlas supports a twelve-sided sundial designed by an Italian mathematician. To be honest, I never managed to find a reliable explanation of how it actually works. Some of its faces remain in the shade, and each one has its own symbols. Maybe they correspond to different times of the day, maybe to different seasons. Either way, it’s fascinating.
The park is also home to one of the three statues of the Genius of Palermo — one of the city’s ancient protectors and oldest symbols. It is the youngest of the Genius statues you’ll find around Palermo, but without a doubt the most majestic.
Another place I always enjoy is the Pantheon Siciliano. I hope I understood it correctly, because there is surprisingly little information about this part of the park. Hidden among the cypress trees is a circular arrangement of monuments — I’m not even sure what the proper name for them is. The first thing that caught my attention was the name of Archimedes on one of them. From what I’ve been able to gather, this is the Sicilian Pantheon, a place dedicated to outstanding Sicilians. It’s not a major attraction, but this corner of the park has always felt quietly mysterious to me.