Behind closed doors …
8 May, 2011
“This is not Rome or Venice, where the city’s treasures are on display, there for all to see. Palermo is quite different: here, things are hidden away behind closed doors”. That was part of my landlady’s introduction to Palermo.
As I wandered the streets of the old city over the next few weeks, catching fleeting, tantalising glimpses of vaulted ceilings, leafy colonnaded courtyards and frescoed interiors disappearing behind rapidly closing doors and shutters, I began to realise how very apt her introduction to the city had been.
Gradually, with the passing of time, I have managed to see behind some of these doors, but, until now, one particularly intriguing one has remained firmly closed to me. It is a heavy wooden door with ornate baroque surrounds, tucked away between candle factories and printing shops in via Ponticello, a narrow paved street in the old city. Partly because of the door itself, partly because of the sign beside it: ‘Oratory of a Congregation of Noble Women 1733’, I always suspected there was something of interest here. But I wasn’t at all prepared for the treasures, both artistic and historical, that I ultimately found.