The place

The present-day Via Alloro, despite decline and manifold destructions, from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century constituted one of the privileged axes of house building for the aristocratic classes in Palermo. It was a wide and rectilinear road, compared to the average dimension of the streets in the city. Perpendicular to the sea, it went from the Kalsa district towards the city centre and, through a narrowing, flowed into the old city, in the direction of the Pretorian palace. In the choice of the place for the erection of the building we must take into account diffused aspects of social behaviour. So we discover that in the orbit of Piazza Marina the ramified Abatellis family maintained its property and residences. From an important 1480 document, i.e. one dating to ten years before the erection of the building, we know that Federico Abatellis, Baron of Cefalà and the representative of the Baron of Cammarata (Francesco Abatellis?) resided in the residences adjoining the Kalsa (Di Pasquale 1975). Some documents report, however, that during the construction of the building, Francesco Abatellis purchased new plots of land pro decore et ornamento dicte domus magne.