The Museo Mandralisca on Via Mandralisca occupies the 19th-century palazzo of Baron Enrico Piraino di Mandralisca, a local nobleman, naturalist, and archaeologist who spent his life collecting curiosities. The collection ranges across ancient Greek vases, coins, Arab-Norman ceramics, shells, and natural history specimens — eclectic in the old-fashioned sense of someone who found everything interesting.
The single reason most visitors come is the portrait by Antonello da Messina, the 15th-century Sicilian painter who introduced oil painting techniques from Flanders to Italy. The small panel painting of an unknown man — eyes alight with a private amusement, face slightly turned — is one of the most memorable portraits of the Italian Renaissance. If you have come all the way to Cefalù to see the cathedral, take half an hour for this museum. The portrait alone is worth it.