Palazzo Chiaramonte (Lo Steri)

The Palazzo Chiaramonte — known locally as Lo Steri — was built in 1320 by the powerful Chiaramonte family in the Norman-Gothic style that became known as Chiaramontese, the dominant idiom of 14th-century Sicilian architecture. The exterior is sober: two storeys of dressed limestone with elegant double-arched windows facing the harbour-side Piazza Marina.

The first floor still holds the great Hall of the Barons with its original painted wooden ceiling — a frenetic mix of biblical scenes, romance literature, and grotesque animals. The basement cells of the Inquisition are open by guided tour. Now part of the University of Palermo, the palace is open most days, though tour times vary.

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A story
Lo Steri was used as the seat of the Spanish Inquisition from 1601 to 1782. The cells in the basement preserve some of the most extraordinary prisoner graffiti anywhere in Europe — drawings, prayers, calendars, complete writings in Latin, Italian, and Spanish, scratched onto the walls over more than a century. The work has been carefully studied and is now legible on guided tours.