Behind the Porta Uzeda in Catania, to the left in the Via Dusmet, are the Archbishop's Palace and the Palazzo Biscari, which the family of Paternó Castello, Princes of Biscari, ordered to be built in several stages between 1707 and 1763 by A. Amato. On the facade it is the opulent window- frames in the upper story which catch the eye. Ignazio Biscari, the grandson of the man who had originally commissioned the palace, extended it in order to create space for his extensive art collections.
Goethe was just one person to visit "the museum, where pictures, vases and all kinds of similar antiquities in marble and metal are assembled" and to whom Prince Vincenzo, the son of the collector, "showed his coin collection as a special favor". This collection is now to be found in the Museo Civico in the Castello Ursino. If we go down the Via Dusmet in the opposite direction, to the west, we cross the Via C. Colombo and come to the Piazza Federico di Svevia, the "Square of Frederick of Swabia", with the Castello Ursino, a sturdy building made of lava stone.
Built in 1239 by Riccardo da Lentini, this defensive fortification from the Hohenstaufen period shows its close affinity with the castles of Frederick II in Syracuse and Augusta. The ground-plan consists of four wings around an inner courtyard. The four wings form a square with four towers at the corners and four smaller towers halfway along each side. Decorative elements are sparse; on the entrance side to the north can be seen an eagle seizing a hare; this dates from the Hohenstaufen period.
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