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History of Bagheria, Palermo, Sicily

The municipality has 53.247 inhabitants and its area covers 2.968 hectares for a density of population of 1.794 inhabitants per square kilometre. Bagheria rises on a hill near the coast and is 76 meters abive sea-level. It is a populous trading centre placed on a soft slope among green extents of citrus fruit, medlar and olive trees in front of sea and Mount Catalfano. The name of Bagheria derives from Arabic word Bacar that means cowhouse. The centre had its origin in the second half of the XVII century with the building of the residence of the prince Giuseppe Branciforte and with the following cultivation of surrounding lands. So other villas were built in the neighbourhood of the town and later the settling expanded till it became like it is now in the present town. Bagheria is renowned for its eighteenth century palaces and for its sumptuous noble villas such as Butera's, Valguarnera's, Ramacca's, Villarosa's and above all like Villa Palagonia, most famous like Villa of monsters because of the presence of 62 bizarre and monstrous sculptures, wished by the prince Ferdinando Francesco Gravina from Palagonia in 1715.

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