Gymnasium

A true temple of Botany, built between 1789 and 1795 as the headquarters of the Schola Regia Botanices, was designed by the French architect Léon Dufourny. Inside, in the octagonal hall, botanical lessons took place.

The building is crowned by a dome, in which the image of the goddess Flora is depicted, with the Horatian motto "miscuit utile dulci," which which synthesises the union of beauty and utility, i.e. the garden of delight and scientific at the same time.

This was the first neoclassical architecture built in Palermo, enriched by numerous decorative elements created by various artists and craftsmen from the city. The painter Giuseppe Velasco frescoed the dome's vault and the tetrastyle, sculptor Gaspare Firriolo modeled statues representing the four seasons, and sculptor Vitale Puccio crafted the two sphinxes at the entrance, as well as statues of Dioscorides, Theophrastus, Tournefort and Linnaeus inside.