Palazzo Biscari hosts conferences, working brunches, gala dinners, fashion presentations and weddings, from small private lunches up to 350 guests. The palace stands on Via Museo Biscari in the historic center of Catania, on the east coast of Sicily, and is still largely lived in by the descendants of the family that built it.
Seminars and company events
For business use, the palace offers small lunches in the central hall, working brunches in the salons and larger conferences for up to 350 people. Its halls and support services also suit collection launches and fashion shows for clothing and jewelry brands, and the courtyard, terraces and halls have served as sets for films, music videos and advertising. Guided tours of the palace can be booked separately, which can open or close a company program. Additional services, from staging, sound and DJ to flowers, photography and video, are arranged through professional suppliers on request.
Weddings and receptions
The party halls cover about 500 square meters and can be set for a seated dinner or turned into a dance floor. Smaller private rooms suit a more intimate group. The palace is suitable for civil and symbolic ceremonies, and the balcony, which the palace calls the best known in Catania, is a natural spot for photographs. Gala lunches and dinners reach 350 guests.
Rooms and capacities
The main sequence of rooms opens from a monumental staircase at the end of the large courtyard. The Salone dell'Orchestra is a large Rococo hall with Neapolitan influences, overdoors showing views of Naples and a frescoed ceiling celebrating the family. Its oval vault opens into a gallery where musicians once played. The Sala Verde has paintings, overdoors and a terracotta floor inlaid with white Syracuse stone. The Sala Rossa is hung with large portraits of the Biscari family. The site also names a Salone della Musica. The palace gives one overall maximum of 350 guests rather than a figure for each room.
Catering
The palace does not present an in-house kitchen. On request, it arranges catering through what it describes as the best caterers in Sicily, together with the other event suppliers.
History and setting
Ignazio Paternò Castello III, Prince of Biscari, obtained permission to build on a stretch of 16th-century city walls soon after the earthquake of 1693. His son Vincenzo, the fourth prince, continued the work, and his grandson Ignazio V, who died in 1786, completed it and set aside large rooms for an archaeological, coin and natural history museum open to scholars. Goethe was received there on March 3, 1787, and was shown the coin collection. The portal on Via Museo Biscari is the largest and most ornate in the city. Much of the museum collection later went to the civic museum in Castello Ursino.
Getting there
The palace is at Via Museo Biscari 10, close to the cathedral, Via Crociferi and Teatro Bellini. Catania Fontanarossa airport is about 6 kilometers away, and Catania Centrale station is a few minutes away.
