According to the historian
Pietro Maria Rocca the palace dates back to 1495. It belonged to the De Ballis family, noblemen native of
Piacenza, who built it, and was made after the designs of Tommaso and Pietro Oddo, (father and son) who were from
Monreale (
Palermo). After the extinction of the De Ballis, the property transferred to the Papè and Polizzi family, the part including the tower belongs to the D’Angelo family, while the other part belongs to the family Castrogiovanni-Iannitto.
Description Giuseppe Polizzi describes the palace in this way: :
Torre De Ballis, whose upper partis well kept, has a rectangular window, divided into three lights by two small columns and a mullioned window in the posterior façade, besides a beautiful frame with Machicolation, sustaining the merlons. Doors with elliptical arches, surrounded by gothic shape leaning on small moulded corbels. On the first floor the square tower has a window with an
architrave and small corbels; on the second floor, there is a three-light-window inserted into a
round arch; on the eastern side of the court yard there is a mullioned window. The tower is surrounded by merlons, leaning on little niches sustaining
pointed arches. In ancient times the main door was in the middle; in the 18th century it was substituted by two new doors: Inside the hall there are some
frescoes that were restored by professor Giuseppe Ganga in 1985, representing multicolour flowers and landscapes. The centre of the vault is surmounted by a
rose window, instead, and the bedroom is embellished by a
canopy bed and some frescoes on the ceiling. In 2005 the palace and its tower were restored and have complied with the originary characteristics of the building: these works were entirely at the D’Angelo family's own expense.
Associazione Culturale Musikè It has its own seat in this building and its purpose is to promote art and music, in order to contribute to the growth and interior beauty, of teenagers above all, through exhibitions, concerts, music and singing courses, music therapy, besides the diffusion of literary subjects and Maths. Another goal is to recover tastes, uses and traditions of our past; they give dinners, and you can also make a guided visit at Palazzo de Ballis. == See also ==