Villa Tasca is located not far from the road that leads to the Norman town of Monreale, in an area that still preserves some of the features praised by the Marquis of Villabianca: "The district is decorated with noble villas and pleasure-houses, with orchards everywhere, enriched by water-springs".
The story begins five centuries ago, in the middle of the fifteen hundreds, when Louiso di Balogna, the Baron of Montefalco, decided to build a sumptuos palace in an area with abundant springs. Over time, his sucessors (Camastra, Silvera, Branciforte) made various changes to the property until, in the seventeen hundreds, "the Villa halfway to Monreale" aussumed its present form.
The Lanzas, Princes of Trabia, and the Dukes of Camastra followed the neoclassical style, both in the buildings and in the garden. Thus, Villa Trabia became "one of the most beautiful Villa's formerly held by our barons" as the Marquis of Villabianca wrote. The Villa also became quite famous for the celebrations that Pietro Lanza di Branciforte, Prince of Trabia, held there.
In the mid-eighteen hundreds, Pietro Lanza's heirs also extended the garden into the land surrounding the Villa, thus creating a park based on the design elements of the "romantic garden", an equisite world of emotions and senses.
The location's natural beauty and the refinement of the various areas of the garden made the Villa a central attraction for many celebrities traveling through Sicily. Since 1808, some of the Villa's guests have been: King Ferdinand of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies and Queen Maria Carolina, Otto van Bismarck, Queen Margherita of Savoy, and Jaqueline Kennedy. Here, Wagner was a guest of the Villa's for some time and even composed the third act of Parsifal here. Verdi, Paganini, Rubinstein, Benedetti Michelangeli, and Claudio Abbado have also been guests of the Villa.
Do you know where the cherries bloom? Golden oranges shine amongst the brown leaves, a soft zephyr spirals through the blue sky, the mirtle sprouts humbly, the laurel stands tall…(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
Giuseppe Lanza Branciforte's son-in-law, Lucio Mastrogiovanni Tasca, along with his daughter, Beatrice Lanza d'Almerita, transformed the Villa into that cultural center that would become the reference point for the epoch's intellectual elite. Thus, Lucio Mastrogiovanni Tasca "the Count of Almerita" marked the beginning of a new age, both for the family and the Villa.
Together, the couple decided to modify the original baroque garden into one of the most spirited interpretations of the "Romantic Garden" in Sicily. The current park owes much of its beauty to Count Lucio's interventions, which transformed what was once just a hunting lodge and family vineyard into an enchanted place. Count Lucio was particolarly fascinated by the collection of exotic plants in Palermo's Botanical Garden and thus became on of the first in Palermo to realize a private garden with exotic tropical species.
Artificial lakes and fountains were also added to the garden. Aside from the central lagoon, inhabited by three swans, another larger lake was added, that was then later even further enlarged. A small artificial mountain and grotto was also built at the same time. A small dedicated to Ceres crowns the mountain, with Doric and Corinthian columns, and water springs forth from the rocks as if it were a natural creek. Marble benches and wrought iron chairs are located amongst the beaten earth trails, and various statues - including a precious copy of the Venus Anadyomene - in order to comfortably enjoy the beautiful scenery.
"Palermo, Museum of the Mediterranean: if you want to know what has passed on these blue waves, come to Palermo. It is a delicious city, a sweet city, a fragrant city. Her piazzas, her roads, her gardens, her monuments are magnificent. This is Sicily - nature's masterpiece, the center of the world, this illustrious land who's destiny is so moving and so mysterious." (Gabriel Hanotaux, noted diplomat from the French Academy, 1853-1944).