L’Arsenale della Real Marina

About

Buildt between 1621 and 1630 on design by architect Mariano Smiriglio, the Arsenal of the Royal Sicilian Navy has been active for more than two centuries in the construction of xebecs and minor vessels for the Royal Sicilian Navy. Following a phase of progressive decay, from the unification of Italy to the destructions of the Allied bombings in 1943, the Arsenal building was restore and reopened in 1998 thanks also to the efforts of the "Comitiato pro-Arsenale Borbonico". Now the building is custodied by the local Superintendancy to the Sea that uses its spaces for exibits and conferences. Inside the building two associations find their spaces: the Associazione "Museo del Mare e della Navigazione Siciliana Florio" and the "Comitato pro-Arsenale Borbonico", working together with the Superintendacy for the knowledhe of the immense historical heritage, material and immaterial, gathered in the centuries of relationship between Palermo and its sea.