An unexpected page
When you think of Nicosia you usually think of the Middle Ages, the 17th century, the Barons. But there is a 20th-century page that deserves a place in the town’s story: the Liberty architecture that, in the first two decades of the 20th century, left a few traces even in the heart of inland Sicily.
Sicilian Liberty
Liberty is the Italian variant of European Art Nouveau, developed between 1895 and the 1920s. In Sicily it is mainly Ernesto Basile (the great Palermitan architect) who translates the movement into an island idiom, with bourgeois villa-houses characterised by:
- floral decoration in cement or stone;
- wrought iron with stylised vegetal motifs;
- polychrome leaded glass;
- asymmetrical symmetry of the façades.
In Nicosia, outside the medieval-Baroque monumental centre, there are some house-villas of the local bourgeoisie built in this style between 1905 and 1925. The villa shown here is the most representative.
For those who find it
The Liberty Villa is in one of the 19th-century neighbourhoods outside the walls, a few minutes’ walk from the historic centre. It is privately owned and not open inside, but the façade is clearly visible from the street and is worth a stop on an extended-centre walking tour.
A recommended detour
A visit to the Liberty Villa pairs well with a tour of the 19th- and early-20th-century neighbourhoods of Nicosia, outside the historic walls. A one-hour walk that tells of the evolution of the town beyond the Middle Ages, moving from the Barons’ 16th century to the urban planning of the post-Unification bourgeoisie.