Greenhouse of the Giardino Inglese (Casa delle Ninfee)

The Giardino Inglese goes back to a decision of 1850, when the authorities bought several plots to create a large English-style garden. A commission chaired by Professor Vincenzo Tineo, with Federico Gravina and Carlo Giachery, entrusted the design to the young architect Giovan Battista Filippo Basile; Wikipedia dates the project to 1851. The park, which covers more than five hectares according to the association, has carried the name of Piersanti Mattarella since January 2020.

The press attributes the greenhouse to Basile and calls it Liberty in style. Abandoned for years, the greenhouse was vandalised several times. The association Vivi Sano, which manages public green spaces in Palermo, launched a fundraising campaign in October 2022 and, after almost two years of paperwork, obtained the building from the city under a concession. The project, first conceived as a Casa delle Orchidee, became a Casa delle Ninfee, designed with the University's botanical garden and the Studio Provenzano Architetti Associati, under the supervision of the Soprintendenza for cultural heritage and the city's Città Storica office.

Works began on 9 January 2023. They slowed when the city started a requalification of the whole garden funded by the PNRR, the national recovery plan; after several months' pause the site restarted in mid-February 2024. The greenhouse was inaugurated on Saturday 18 May 2024, after several postponements. BlogSicilia reports that the concession rent is offset and that the association pays none until 2028.

The press and the association describe a structure made entirely of cast iron and glass, compared to an upturned boat and assembled without a single weld. Other texts, including Wikipedia's article on the garden, speak of wrought iron. Photographs published on Wikimedia Commons in 2016, before the restoration, show a low glazed vault made of small panes, a low base and a glazed entrance porch topped by a small pitched roof.

Balarm links the building to the Liberty style, inspired by the old pleasure gardens and echoing the Arab garden, and sees in it a showcase for the skills of local craftsmen. The greenhouse is described as cold: it is not artificially heated and relies on the sun's warmth to reach a temperature suitable for the plants.

The building outline in OpenStreetMap, an approximate measure, indicates a footprint of about 15 m by 9 m. The association names the firm Maltese, which carried out the works, and the Studio Provenzano Architetti Associati, which helped design the project, under the Soprintendenza's supervision.

Water lilies (ninfee) give the greenhouse its name and are its emblematic plant. The association also lists aquatic plants in a broad sense, spineless succulents and several plumerias. Pomelie, planted in memory of people close to the association, are described in the press as an expression of Sicilian identity.

Carp live in the greenhouse as well: on Saturday mornings the children's workshop ends with feeding them. The place is looked after by six young adults with intellectual disabilities, trained in plant care and in guiding schools, families and tourists, with the support of a tutor from the association. The greenhouse is presented as a place for caring for plants, fish, people and memory.

The greenhouse stands in the Parco Piersanti Mattarella, near the entrance on via Duca della Verdura. The Vivi Sano association publishes the weekly opening calendar on the Casa delle Ninfee website; on Saturdays an art and music workshop is offered to children, and school classes come by reservation in the middle of the week. The greenhouse occupies only a small footprint, so it pairs naturally with a walk through the garden, where fig trees, cycads, araucarias and jacarandas grow and the equestrian monument to Garibaldi dates from 1891. The park is undergoing a PNRR-funded requalification (asphalt replaced by gravel), so conditions may vary. The University's botanical garden, a partner in the project, lies about 3.5 km away and also has historic glasshouses, already described in this atlas.