Villa Cerami, Catania

Villa Cerami is a former private villa on Via Crocifero in Catania, Sicily, standing on rising ground above the city and built over the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre. Originally owned by Giuseppe Lanza, Duke of San Donato, it was bought around 1724 by Domenico Rosso, third Prince of Cerami, and its entrance portico and monumental staircase are attributed to the architect Giovanni Battista Vaccarini, who worked on the building's reconstruction after the earthquake of 1693; the building was refurbished again in the late nineteenth century by Carlo Sada for the ninth prince and hosted King Umberto I and Queen Margherita in January 1881. Its Baroque portico bears the Cerami family coat of arms, and the grounds include a forecourt with a converted former carriage house and a marble water fountain installed by the family. The University of Catania acquired the villa in 1957 and now houses its School of Jurisprudence there, in a complex that also includes a five storey glass office and classroom tower added between 1962 and 1964.