Borgo Parrini in Partinico

Anyone who decides to visit Sicily and its innumerable beauties organizes his tour including Palermo among the various stages: not everyone knows that just 47 km from the Sicilian capital, in the heart of the pretty Partinico, one is hidden little Barcelona. It is Borgo Parrini, a small corner where you can breathe deeply typical Gaudi style, in an atmosphere that takes visitors back to the light and colors typical of Catalonia.

Borgo Parrini: historical notes

In 1500 a group of perrini, i.e. Fathers of the Jesuit Novitiate of Palermo, bought land around Partinico and managed agricultural life there: they built a church, watchtowers, warehouses and houses for the workers. With the suppression of the order and the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767 by the Bourbons, the properties passed to Henri d'Orleans: the French built a winery here where he started the production of Moscatello dello Zucco, offering work to hundreds of people .
After the Second World War Borgo Parrini was gradually abandoned, with the inhabitants who decided to move to the nearest cities: the fraction of Partinico rose from its ashes only thanks to Joseph Gaglio, an entrepreneur with a great passion for art. The man decided to give a more colorful and luminous face to Borgo Parrini, making an extravagant use of colors like the great painter and sculptor Guadì did.

The architecture of Borgo Parrini

Today Borgo Parrini is a riot of colored glass, murals, kaleidoscopic walls and majolica tiles that cover floors and low walls: here and there, terracottas emerge with the appearance of monuments such as the Tower of the Palermo Cathedral and the dome of the Cathedral of the beautiful Ragusa Ibla. Dominating are the blue colors of the sky and the sea, the yellow of the dazzling sun and the ocher of the fertile land. On the walls you can read here and there verses of great poets and personalities such as Frida Khalo, Coelho, Gandhi and Mandela.

Borgo Parrini revolves around the old one Church of Maria Santissima del Rosario, now home to a Literary Café where events and small concerts take place. There are three other buildings that can be visited and they have a kitchen on the lower floor that seems to have remained standing in ancient times: everything, from the furniture to the pottery and textiles, has been recovered and restored.
In Borgo Parrini there is also an outdoor café where taste the gastronomic specialties of the place, three pizzerias and the Za Santa oven where the exquisite is produced Perrini bread.

What to see around Borgo Parrini

Borgo Parrini is a fraction of Partinico, a town that is full of things to see, starting from the sixteenth century Church of Santissima Annunziata, inside which are preserved works of the XVI-XVII century including the beautiful S. Rosalia in ecstasy. Walking through Partinico, near the central Corso dei Mille, you notice an elegant stage neoclassical built in 1875, still used today to cheer the events of the town with music. Unmissable are then the Grillo Collection Museum dedicated to agricultural life (complete with references to those superstitious beliefs that characterized rural life in the past) e the Opera dei Pupi by Vincenzo Garifo, complete with ancient puppets depicting Charlemagne and his entourage.
Just outside Partinico is then the Royal Bourbon Cellar commissioned in the 800s by the Marquis Francesco del Castillo: here oils, liqueurs and wines were produced, kept in elegant rooms with vaulted ceilings supported by pillars and arches.

How to get to Borgo Parrini

To get to Borgo Parrini you must first reach Partinico, about 47 km away from Palermo. From the Sicilian capital, take the A29 in the direction of Mazara del Vallo and exit at Montelepre. From here on you have to continue along the SP1-bis until you turn onto Via Suriano.
The car can be parked right outside Borgo Parrini, in a paid parking area.

© Image by David Mauro, CC BY-SA 4.0 - David Mauro, CC BY-SA 4.0- David Mauro, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons