Palazzo Marchese

The building now stands restored in the heart of the "Fieravecchia" district, thanks to a recent renovation. The work didn't fully respect its original layout, since intermediate and upper floors added through earlier conversions were retained. Inside, the dismantled staircase was originally "Catalan" style, and still features a small loggia with classical columns. A section of the original parapet with molded cornices, found by chance during renovation, also survives. Its postal history explains the name "Correria vecchia" (Old Mail Post Office). Don Francesco Zappata secured the first royal concession for mail distribution in the mid-16th century, and postal couriers operated from here. The tall doorway was made to let mail carriages pass. The palace began as a 15th-century noble residence of the Alliata family, and was originally owned by the Sollima barons of Castanìa in the Nebrodi mountains. In the 18th century, under the Marchese family, who served as postmasters to the Kingdom, it became the first city post office serving all of Sicily. When the post office moved to the Alliata family's premises in Piazza Bologni in the 18th century, the building was sold to the Cutelli family, marquises of Villa Rosato in Enna, and returned to residential use. The portal has carved stone flaming vases and garlands. On the Via Calascibetta side, there's an interesting window with a "Catalan" cornice.

The old Correria is Palazzo Marchese, on Ruelle des Corriers between Place Aragon and Place Catholique, behind Place Bourse. Its wide entrance let carriages in. After years of neglect threatened its stability, the building has recently been restored. For generations, the Marquis family ran the ancient postal service and were known across the kingdom as "postmasters". In 1734, the concession passed by inheritance to Donna Vittoria Di Giovanni, who was married to Fabrizio Alliata e Colonna, Prince of Villafranca. He managed the service for his wife and moved its headquarters to his splendid building in Piazza Bologna. It stayed there until 1786, when the Bourbon government bought the service. The contract said the government should repay the large amount Donna Vittoria De Tassis had paid in 1624. As people know, the state has a little less money to repay. The full amount wasn't returned until 1834, after countless lawsuits and requests. After the postal service was nationalized, its offices moved to a building that had been the Praetorian Court, now gone, and to the nearby church of San Cataldo. It may seem odd that one of the most important monuments of "Arab" (?) Norman art became a post office. Governments and regimes change, but the bureaucracy stays the same, inefficient and, above all, ignorant. In 1875 the post office returned to Piazza Bologna, opposite the former Palazzo Alliata headquarters, this time in the church of the Convent del Carminello, which no longer exists. It remained there until 1936, when it moved to the imposing Palazzo des Postes in Via Roma.