On Monday, 28 September 2026, the courtyard of Palazzo Butera hosted Francesco Dal Co for the lecture Carlo Scarpa in Palermo, dedicated to one of the most significant achievements in twentieth-century Italian museum architecture: Carlo Scarpa’s project for Palazzo Abatellis, carried out between 1953 and 1954.
Organised by CASABELLAformazione, the event marked the Palermo stage of Con Carlo Scarpa, a programme taking place between September and November in Palermo, Verona and Venice, with lectures and visits devoted to some of the Venetian architect’s most important works.
During the evening, Francesco Dal Co retraced Scarpa’s work on the transformation of Palazzo Abatellis into the home of the Regional Gallery of Sicily, focusing on the distinctive way in which the architect intervened in the fifteenth-century building and on the relationship he established between architecture, artworks and the visitor’s experience.
In Scarpa’s project, old and new enter into dialogue without merging into one another. The architect reshaped the visitor route, established distances and viewpoints, and designed supports, backdrops and transitions, placing each artwork in a carefully considered relationship with the space surrounding it. Masterpieces such as the Triumph of Death, Antonello da Messina’s Annunciation, and the bust of Eleanor of Aragon thus become focal points around which a sequence of perspectives, openings and spatial relationships unfolds.
The choice of Palazzo Butera as the setting for the lecture offered a further opportunity to reflect on the relationship between historic architecture, collections and contemporary approaches to museum display.
The event was organised by CASABELLAformazione, with the patronage of the Fondazione Ordine Architetti Pianificatori Paesaggisti Conservatori Palermo.
