Sicily unlocks €530M for Palazzo Trigona museum and ecomuseums

After decades of delays, the Sicilian Region has allocated €530 million to transform the 18th-century Palazzo Trigona della Floresta in Piazza Armerina into a civic museum. The building, purchased by the region in 1959, underwent consolidation in 1978 and various restorations over 40 years, but the final museum project stalled after the last construction site closed in 2012. Now, with a decree signed by Sergio Alessandro, Director General of Cultural Heritage, and President Nello Musumeci, the museum is set to open by 2020. It will house prehistoric, archaic, classical, and Hellenistic artifacts from the area, with interactive touchscreens, a geolocation app, and augmented reality experiences. Facilities will include a reception, ticket office, conference room, and outdoor event space. Separately, the region has finally appointed a technical-scientific committee to activate ecomuseums, established by law in 2014 but never implemented. The committee includes historian Domenico Jalla, ethno-anthropologists Vito Lattanzi and Rosario Perricone, landscape architect Francesco Baratti, and archaeologists Alessandra Merra and Lucia Ferruzza. They will review proposals from cities including Agrigento, Catania, Palermo, and Syracuse, and validate existing small ecomuseums. The ecomuseums aim to preserve local cultural identity, promote sustainable development, and engage contemporary artists and researchers.