traveldk.com

The day labourer’s house is a poorly furnished space of 12 sq m (130 sq ft). It was inhabited by six people until the 1960s, illustrating social conditions of the Sicilian countryside.

The peasant farmer’s home has a kitchen complete with wood-burning stove.

Objects on display in this interesting museum range from obsidian tools of the Neolithic period to items acquired through foreign trade, such as Etruscan red glazed ceramics. There are also beautiful vases and masks from Greece that have survived from Sicily’s Greek occupation (see Aeolian Archaeological Museum, Lipari).

The mission of Antonino Uccello was to preserve what he saw as the fast disappearing culture of peasant farmers. Every item used in the home, workroom, farm, for transportation, entertainment or devotion, was traditionally handmade. The result are elegantly crafted tools, illustrating a very personal and unique aspect of Sicilian history.

The centre preserves 120 hours of film and 6,000 prints documenting work in the fields and agricultural life.

The palace itself, built in 1234, is noteworthy for its medieval architecture with 15th-century Catalan additions. The collections trace the development of figurative art in southeast Sicily with medieval and Renaissance sculpture, Sicilian, Italian and Flemish paintings including works by Antonello and Caravaggio, and a collection of Sicilian decorative arts.

The Catalan-Gothic palace was built at the end of the 15th century and is now home to the collections of the former National Museum. Paintings and sculpture by Sicilian masters span the 13th to 16th centuries, complemented by fine works by Italian and Flemish artists (see Palazzo Abatellis).

This tiny village is now a living museum, where eight work rooms and living spaces have been faithfully preserved. They include the home of a peasant farmer, a smithy, olive press and a mill.

Objects recovered from sites throughout western Sicily illustrate the development of art and culture from prehistoric eras to the Roman period.