Palazzo Drago Ajroldi

Palazzo Drago Ajroldi in Palermo, Italy, is an urban palace that began as an Arab garrison along the medieval Cassaro route. The building took its final historic shape in the opening years of the eighteenth century and exhibits layers of Baroque form later mixed with Neoclassical ordering and, eventually, Liberty, or Art Nouveau, touches. Its position on the old Cassaro and its changing ownership across noble families made the palace a visible participant in Palermo’s civic and cultural life.

The site served first as a military presidio established by Arab rulers when the Cassaro was the main thoroughfare. Over several centuries the structure was rebuilt and added onto repeatedly, each generation leaving masonry and layout traces until the large-scale remodelling that produced the eighteenth-century appearance.

In 1714 the residence entered the hands of Casimiro Drago during the reign of Victor Amadeus II of Savoy, when the property was tied to an important judicial-administrative office in the kingdom. In 1724 the title of marquis was conferred on the family by Emperor Charles VI. Casimiro’s son, Biagio II Drago, then directed a comprehensive pictorial decoration of the main reception rooms. Among these commissions is Olivio Sozzi’s signed and dated fresco The Judgment of Paris, completed in 1745, a notable non-religious composition within the palace.

The nineteenth century brought a change of owners. The Ajroldi family, originally from Lombardy and later styled Marquises of Santa Colomba, acquired the property; Giovanbattista Ajroldi purchased the marquisate title from Gaspare di Santa Colomba. Under the Ajroldi line the interiors and façades were reworked so that Baroque richness met Neoclassical restraint, and later decorative phases introduced Liberty motifs.

In 1872 an architect undertook refinement works that adjusted the palace’s décor and finishes. During the early decades of the twentieth century principal salons were redecorated following the Art Nouveau taste prevailing in Palermo, with interventions by a prominent local painter and his workshop while other rooms preserved their earlier schemes and Sozzi’s eighteenth-century fresco. In recent years the Bertolino family, represented by Giovanni Bertolino, has carried out restorations and adapted the residence to function as a house-museum, with spaces set aside for contemporary painters and a small group of canvases by Francesco Lojacono kept within the principal rooms.