Sack of Palermo

[1] More significant than the wartime destruction of the old city was the political decision against its restoration in favor of building a “new Palermo”, at first concentrated at the northern end, beyond the Art Nouveau neighborhood of 19th century expansion.

[1] Real estate developers ran wild, pushing the center of the city out along Viale della Liberta toward the new Punta Raisi Airport.

Villa Deliella, one of the most important works of Sicilian architect Ernesto Basile was completely demolished in the middle of the night, hours before it would have come under the protection of historic preservation laws.

[2] The high point of the sack happened when the Christian Democrat Salvo Lima was mayor of Palermo (1958–1963 and 1965–1968) and Vito Ciancimino the assessor for public works.

[5] At that time, the role of the Mafia in property speculation was not yet clear, but in later reports in 1963 and 1964 the newspaper identified the so-called VA.LI.GIO business consortium (from Vassallo-Gioia-Lima), consisting of the builder Vassallo and the two Christian Democratic leaders, Giovanni Gioia and Lima, together with the DC councillor for public works, Vito Ciancimino, as those responsible for destroying the layout of Palermo.