Palazzo Saraceno
(15th century)
Palazzo Saraceno is a faithful example of Renaissance art applied to a private building. It was built between the 15th and 16th centuries and has stood witness to tales of nobility, courage and mystery.
The building belonged to the Saraceno family, originally known as Da Girifalco. According to legend, the name Saraceno was adopted after a captain of the family decapitated a fearsome Moorish chief during the first Crusade. This episode marked the family from then on, they adopted the symbol of a Moor’s head, which is visible in the coat of arms on the building, depicting a rampant lion across a band decorated with three moor’s heads, symbol of strength and courage.
The windows are extremely elegant and show a clear Catalan influence, witness to the Spanish presence at the time, and the base of the building is in ashlar. The main door with its wide arch leads onto an inner courtyard from which a stairway leads up to the upper floors and what remains of a roof garden, much coveted by the noble families of that time. In the garden is a polygonal wellhead in local calcareous stone, decorated with the three moor’s head in bas relief.
The family chapel, dedicated to St. Joseph, is now a private dwelling but still reveals the date of its consacration, 1635, on the architrave. Two epigraphic inscriptions adorn the building, a reminder of the power and the culture of the Saraceno family. On the main façade is a warning written in dialect to anyone with hostile intentions: “El saracino tengez et sempre coce et quanto più lu tocchi più te noce” (the tenacious Saracen always seethes, and the more you touch him, the more he will hurt you” Another more refined inscription can be seen on the Via San Giuseppe side, echoing verses from Dante’s Inferno: “Temer si dee sol di quelle cose ch’hanno potenza di far altrui male, de l’altre no, che no son paurose”. (“only be afraid of what can hurt others, anything else is not to be feared”)
Palazzo Saraceno is not simply a building, but a journey back in time, a portal leading to a past of greatness and nobility. Every detail, from the decorations to the inscriptions, tells a story of a family which left an indelible mark on the history of Giovinazzo.
