Palazzina Cinese

In 1799, it would have taken months to sail from Italy to China. But the artifacts, material goods, and tales of adventure that made their way from China to Europe heightened the West's curiosity about Chinese culture. Giuseppe Vananzio Marvuglia, an Italian architect, designed the Palazzina Cinese ("Chinese House") as an homage to 18th century Chinese architecture (or at least, Marvuglia's interpretation of it). 

The Palazzina Cinese was commissioned for King Ferdinand III of Sicily. It stands out as an example of chinoiserie, an aesthetic that combined a western interpretation of Chinese and Sinosphere art forms with the Rococo style that was most popular in Europe from the 1720s to the 1750s.

The Palazzina Cinese's unique exterior blends elements of traditional Italian villa design with stereotypical Chinese pagoda features, culminating in an observatory at the top. Inside the palace are frescoes depicting imagined scenes of Chinese life and a reception hall decorated with Eastern-inspired fabric panels. The garden behind the palace has fountains with Chinese dragons sculpted into them.

The palace's ownership eventually passed to the Comune of Palermo, under whose care it has been preserved and opened to the public. Besides its chinoiserie design, the palace is also known for the "mathematical table," which doubles as a dumbwaiter lowering down into the kitchen. The palace gatehouse has become the Sicilian Ethnographic Museum of Giuseppe Pitrè, showcasing Sicily's clothing and traditions. The chapel next to the gatehouse has an exhibit on the former Kingdom of Sicily.