Colonna dell'Immacolata
Colonna dell'Immacolata rises at the centre of Piazza San Domenico in Palermo, beside the church of San Domenico. A massive Billiemi marble column carries Giovan Battista Ragusa’s bronze Virgin, while angels surround the ornate base.
Tommaso Maria Napoli designed the monument in the early eighteenth century, as Palermo opened the piazza by removing older houses. Giovanni Biagio Amico completed it after Napoli’s death, raising the structure in 1726 despite a major earthquake shortly before. The shortened column allowed Dominican friars to see the Virgin from the church’s main altar through its central window. Marble angels by Ragusa, Giuseppe Marino, and Giacomo and Vincenzo Vitagliano remain on the base, alongside bronze statues of Popes Pius IX and Pius XII.
The lower figures record Palermo’s political changes, replacing Habsburg and Bourbon statues removed or melted during later upheavals. Every 8 December, flowers climb towards the Virgin in a tribute often carried out with help from Palermo’s fire brigade.
- City
- Palermo
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Image: BjsCC0 
Image: BjsCC0 
Image: HalibuttPublic domain
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