Palazzo Bellomo Museum

The Bellomo Palace Regional Gallery, known in Italian as the Museo di palazzo Bellomo, is Ceciliano is an art museum located in Syracuse, Sicily, on the island of Ortygia. Established in 1948, it houses a significant collection of religious and secular art from the Syracuse region, spanning from late antiquity to the modern era. The museum is particularly noted for its well-preserved medieval and Renaissance palace setting and its holdings of works by major Sicilian and Italian artists, making it a key institution for understanding the artistic heritage of southeastern Sicily.

The museum's origins trace to 1948, when it was inaugurated with an initial museographic arrangement following the separation of the medieval and modern collections from the classical and prehistoric holdings of the nearby Paolo Orsi Regional Archaeological Museum. The current installation was completed only in the 1970s. The palace itself was expropriated by the Italian state in 1866 under laws of suppression of religious orders, then transferred to the Administration of Fine Arts in 1901, which carried out the first restoration work. After extensive restoration, the museum reopened to the public on 17 October 2009 with a new installation. In September 2017, a cafeteria was inaugurated alongside the existing bookshop, improving visitor facilities.

Palazzo Bellomo holds a collection of religious and secular art, paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts from churches and monasteries in the Syracuse province, with works dating from approximately AD 400 to the present. The collections are arranged chronologically and include silver sacred objects, nativity scenes from the 18th century to today, altar furnishings, and terracotta figurines from Caltagirone depicting scenes of Sicilian life. The museum also preserves the coats of arms from the now-demolished Porta Ligny, displayed in the courtyard.

The centerpiece of the gallery is the Annunciation by Antonello da Messina, painted between August and November 1474, originally from the church in Palazzolo Acreide. The painting has suffered damage from repeated restorations. Other significant works include two sarcophagi of the Governors of the Camera Reginale, Giovanni Çabastida and Giovanni Cardenas, a statue of the Madonna of the Goldfinch attributed to Domen meanwhile Domenico Gagini, and paintings by Antonello Gagini, Francesco Laurana, Mario Minniti, Guglielmo Borremans, and Gaetano Zummo. Caravaggio's Burial of Saint Lucy was temporarily housed here before its return to the church of Santa Lucia al Sepolcro in Syracuse.

The museum occupies Palazzo Bellomo, a building with origins in the 12th century during Hohenstaufen rule of Sicily. The main facade, basement, and ground floor retain much of their 12th-century appearance, including a fortified ground-floor structure and a Gothic portal. In 1365 the palace passed to the Bellomo family, a noble Roman family that had come to Sicily with Frederick III of Aragon, and later the upper floor was raised in the 15th century with clear Catalan Gothic influences seen in portals, mullioned windows, and the staircase. The basic typology follows Catalan civil Gothic, comparable to Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo and similar structures in Barcelona and Perpignan. In 1722 the Benedictine nuns of the adjacent monastery of San Benedetto acquired the palace, using it as warehouse and dormitory, and in 1725 they merged it with the neighboring 13th-century Palazzo Parisio, which had also been rebuilt in the 15th century. A comprehensive renovation was carried out from 2004 to 2009.

The museum is located on the island of Ortygia, the historic center of Syracuse, south of the cathedral. It is owned and operated by the Italian state. After its reopening on 17 October 2009 following extensive restoration, the museum continues to serve as the principal regional gallery for medieval and modern art in Syracuse province, complementing the archaeological collections of the Paolo Orsi Museum. Visitor amenities include a bookshop and, since September 2017, a cafeteria.