Other museums in Palermo

International Puppet Museum of Palermo

The International Puppet Museum is located in the former Hôtel de France.
It was created in 1975 on the initiative of Antonio Pasqualino, a surgeon and anthropologist passionate about the popular traditions of Sicily.
Pasqualino was particularly interested in the puppet theatre that was falling into disuse (l‘Opera dei Pupi in Italian), which for centuries told stories of French knights and crusades, and later works by Italian authors.
The first core of the collection consisted of Sicilian puppets, later enriched by pieces from other countries around the world, bringing the total to 3,500.
The various spaces include a library with nearly 3000 volumes dedicated to popular traditions and puppets; a video library; and a room dedicated to theatrical programming.

Palazzo Asmundo

The Palazzo Asmundo is a palace in Palermo located near the cathedral. Dating back to the 17th century, it was remodelled from 1767 when the Marquis of Sessa, Don Giuseppe Asmundo Paternò, bought a building on the city’s most prestigious street. The exterior was renovated and the interior rooms decorated with refined stuccos and frescoes. The building was later turned into a high-end hotel.
A museum is now housed within the beautiful rooms of the palace, with refined collections of Sicilian and French porcelain, earthenware, fashion objects, embroidery, maps, numismatics, paintings, and even sedan chairs and vintage cars.

Geological and Palaeontological Museum of Palermo

The Geological Museum “Gaetano Giorgio Gemmellaro” is one of the most interesting museums in the city. It was created in 1838 by Gemmellaro and the current collection contains around 600,000 specimens.
On the ground floor are collections illustrating the geological history of Sicily, with discoveries dating back to the Permian era such as coral remains from the Sosio valley, to the Mesozoic era with ammonite fossils, to the Cenozoic era, up to the Quaternary with fossils of the fauna that lived on Monte Pellegrino, near Palermo.
The “room of man” (sala dell’uomo) preserves the oldest known remains of human presence in Sicily, with the remains of Thea, a woman who lived in the Upper Palaeolithic, found in a cave in the province of Messina.
One room displays numerous rocks and crystals, and the “elephant room” displays remains of dwarf elephants that populated Sicily during the Pleistocene, including a complete specimen.

No mafia memorial

The No mafia memorial, created at the end of 2015 with the participation of the Impastato Centre and the city of Palermo, is housed within Palazzo Gulì.
It is dedicated to the memory of the fight against the mafia. It is a project that has developed over the years, in permanent creation, which notably offers a visit to the museum on the mafia and anti-mafia, from its origins to the present day; an educational workshop; a media library with archives; a place for research and meeting.

Pitrè Ethnographic Museum

This ethnographic museum was founded in 1909 by Giuseppe Pitrè, a specialist in popular customs and traditions, initially bringing together many objects from his own research.
It was moved in 1934 from an old convent in the city centre to an annexe of the Chinese Palace.
It preserves nearly 4000 pieces reflecting Sicilian popular culture, including costumes, puppets, carts, ceramics, nativity scenes, prints, etc. A particular room, the “carriage room”, preserves two superb carriages that belonged to the Senate of Palermo.

Zoology Museum of Palermo

The Doderlein zoology museum brings together collections of thousands of invertebrates and vertebrates dating back to the second half of the 19th century. Particularly notable is the collection of Mediterranean fish, preserved by a treatment that has remained secret.

Villa Zito Art Gallery

The Villa Zito Art Gallery holds a collection of more than a thousand paintings and drawings bought by the Banco di Sicilia, paintings from the collections of the former Vittorio Emanuele savings bank, and private donations.
The museum is divided into three sections: Baroque painting from the early 17th century to the end of the 17th century, 19th-century painting with its naturalist realism, and 20th-century Sicilian and Italian painting.

Map with the other museums of Palermo

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Articles: Museums of Palermo