# Porta Felice

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Canonical page: https://mytuur.com/en/city/palermo/spot/porta-felice/

Content updated: 2026-06-22

Porta Felice is Palermo’s monumental city gate, standing at the sea-facing entrance to the Cassaro, one of its oldest streets. You see two façades shaped by different architectural periods.

Mariano Smiriglio directed construction for Spanish viceroy Marcantonio Colonna, which began in 1582 and resumed in 1602 after an interruption. The work reached completion under Vincenzo Tedeschi in 1637. The sea-facing side carries pale marble, columns, niches, balustrades, volutes, coats of arms, and two fountains added in 1642. The city side uses stone pilasters, shrines, and oval oculi.

Classical openings meet late Mannerist Roman influences, while two eagles display the Spanish royal arms above the passage. City and viceroy coats of arms complete the heraldic decoration. In the eighteenth century, aristocrats spent summer evenings by the marina, and this gate regulated their late return to Palermo.

- City: [Palermo](https://mytuur.com/en/city/palermo/)

## Photos

- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_PortaFelice_68c17c4ae7953b13370184f6_0.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Porta_Felice_\(Palermo\)_msu2017-0108.jpg)
- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_PortaFelice_68c17c4ae7953b13370184f6_1.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Porta_Felice_\(Palermo\)_msu2017-0356.jpg)

Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Palermo. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.

## What is myTuur?

myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.