Palazzo Chiaramonte - Palermo

The Steri , or Palazzo Chiaramonte , is located on Piazza Marina . Although the palazzo now serves as a university building, it used to have a much more sinister function: it was the Palace of Inquisition.

The executions usually took place across the street from the palazzo , in the current Giardino Garibaldi, but before then the prisoners stayed in the Steri. You can still visit the former cells . An impressive experience, partly thanks to the sketches and texts that the prisoners left on the walls.

This palazzo also contains the painting that the Sicilian painter Renato Guttuso made of the Vucciria market in 1974. You can look at it for hours and get lost in the vivid details!

The building, intended as a family palace or castle, was begun in 1320 under the protection of the powerful Sicilian lord Manfredi III Chiaramonte. The palace was restored in the 20th century , with numerous elements related to its role as a prison of the Inquisition. During the works, the grooves left by iron cages in which the severed heads of the nobles who had revolted against Emperor Charles V were hung were discovered in the facade.

The palace is now both a museum and the offices of the rector of the University of Palermo.

Willem Vandenameele