Historical background
The palace was built by the Branciforte family in the second half of the 17th century on the site of military casemates behind the 16th-century city walls. In 1728, it was leased to the Theatines, who converted it into the Collegio Imperiale for the education of the nobility. In 1768, the palace was purchased by Giuseppe Amato, Prince of Galati, who unified the seafront facade into a single Vanvitellian-style front and added a terrace.

In 1849, Prince Giulio Fabrizio Tomasi di Lampedusa, an amateur astronomer, bought it with compensation from the crown for the expropriation of the island of Lampedusa. Giulio Fabrizio would serve as the model for the protagonist of “The Leopard,” the novel written by his great-grandson Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.

In 1862, the shipowners De Pace acquired half of the palace and transformed it according to contemporary tastes, creating a grand entrance staircase and a cherry and walnut herringbone parquet floor for the ballroom.

In 1948, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, after losing his family palace in the bombings of 1943, repurchased the property from the De Pace family and lived there until his death in 1957. His adopted son, Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, reunited the entire property and completed a thorough restoration of the building.

The palace
The beauty and uniqueness of this palace compared to others in the city is its light—the sun that streams into the salons overlooking the sea. It is one of the few noble palaces in Palermo that faces the ocean. Today, it is impeccably managed by the tireless and multilingual Duchess Lanza Tomasi.

The tour
The welcome is personally handled by the owners, Gioacchino and Nicoletta Lanza Tomasi, who reside permanently in the palace. The personal library of the writer is the only room that has remained intact since that time.