Badia vecchia

The Palace Badia Vecchia, which now houses the Archaeological Museum of Taormina, dates from the fourteenth century. The tower that makes up the structure was erected to protect the city walls that protected the ancient village. The name Badia, say the researchers, probably comes from the fact that the structure was once an abbey host (in fact the abbey), home of Madre Badessa Eufemia from 1355 as regent of the Kingdom of Sicily. From an architectural point of view of the tower of the Badia Vecchia it appears with a beautiful fourteenth-century Gothic style characterized by the battlements dovetail (just like those found in medieval castles), the mullioned windows with pointed arches and by a staircase, elements that give the structure a certain elegance. The first and second floors are divided by a frame, installed during a phase of restoration, showing inlays in white Syracuse lava rock and stone. Today, inside the rooms to the museum, you can find artefacts that come directly from the Taormina excavations carried out in the period 1984-1998, artifacts from the Hellenistic period and the Roman era.