Description of the attraction
Palazzo Badia Vecchia, which means "old abbey" in Italian, is an old Gothic building built in Taormina in the 14th century. In 1960, it was bought by the city municipality for 12 million lire. After that, restoration work was carried out in it, but soon the building was again abandoned and left at the mercy of vandals.
Like Palazzo Duca di San Stefano, Badia Vecchia is quite like a fortress, which is not surprising - both buildings were erected as bastions along the city walls, designed to protect the northern part of Taormina. The parapet wall with loopholes at the very top gives the palazzo a particularly austere look. Armando Dilla, an architect from Naples, believes that the name Badia Vecchia was given to the building after the abbess of the monastery Efimia, who was regent of her younger brother Frederic, King of the Two Sicilies, in the middle of the 14th century. True, this assumption is still only a theory, albeit very plausible.
In reality, Badia Vecchia was once a monastery. The evidence of this is the sacred drawings found at the bottom of the well for collecting rainwater. Most likely, the drawings were hidden there in order to protect them from the numerous invasions of foreigners to which Taormina was subjected during its long history. In addition, it is believed that all the niches inside were intended for storing icons, and were not just pantries.
The Gothic architecture of Badia Vecchia is very similar to the architecture of Palazzo Duca di San Stefano, as both Palazzo were built in the same era - in the 14th century. Traces of Arab and Norman influences are also visible in both buildings. Badia Vecchia consists of three rooms of the same size. A frieze of local volcanic lava and white Syracuse stone adorns the structure, dividing the first and second floors. On it, one next to the other, three magnificent vaulted windows are visible - from a distance they seem to be a single window with six sashes. The lancet arches decorating the side windows have one round rosette window, and there are three of them in the central arch. From above, the facade of Badia Vecchia is decorated with bifurcated battlements, which makes the building look like a fortress.
