Statue Charles V - Palermo

The statues on the facades of Piazza Villena were originally designed to be made in bronze by Scipione Li Volsi. The only ones ever made were that of Charles V of Habsburg which was placed here in Piazza dei Bologna and that of Philip IV , once placed on top of a marble machine on the floor of the Palace of the Normans and then destroyed.

Charles V of Habsburg was born in Ghent, Flanders, on February 24, 1500, and died in San Jerónimo de Yuste on September 21, 1558. Charles was descended from some of the most illustrious houses of European nobility: in fact, he was the son of Philip of Habsburg, nicknamed the Fair.

After the death of his grandfather Ferdinand of Aragon, Charles was appointed king of Spain in 1516 and became the head of a vast domain that included: The Netherlands Castile, a region in central Spain Aragon, the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula Southern Italy, the lands discovered in America by Christopher Columbus in 1492. In 1556 he abdicated in favor of his son Philip II.

willem vandenameele