Settlement strategies of the Dominicans in Palermo from the Middle Ages to the late Baroque

This paper proposes some reflections on the settlement strategies pursued by the Dominicans in Palermo between the founding of the first conventual settlements, from the 13th century to the transformations of the 17th and 18th centuries as a result of expansion and renovation projects imposed by the Counter-Reformation. The research analyzes for the first time the dialogue between the architecture promoted by the Dominicans and the becoming of the city over the centuries through the continuous and articulated design traces and construction relating to different locations pertaining to enforcement, male (San Domenico and Santa Cita) and female (Santa Caterina and Santa Maria della Pietà), planted in the city center or at least in strategic places adjacent to the changing historical locations at civil, religious and municipal levels. The resulting monumental reconfiguration, by means of the building of different contiguous cloisters and grandiloquent churches, ended up renovating an entire portion of the city. The changed orientation of Dominican ecclesiastical facades – already documented in a project phase – and the different location of the main views in relation to the changing urban configurations, testifies of a mutual dialogue between the Order’s architecture and the developing of the city over the centuries