Palazzo delle Poste (Trapani)

Palazzo delle Poste is an early 20th-century post-office building in Trapani, Sicily. Designed by the architect Francesco La Grassa, it was constructed between 1924 and 1927 and remains a prominent example of the Liberty style in the city’s civic architecture. The building occupies a full urban block with a trapezoidal plan and defines the southern frontage of the former Piazza Cavour (today part of the city centre).^[1]

The Palazzo was commissioned in the early 1920s by the Sicilian division of the Provveditorato alle Opere Pubbliche. The foundation stone was laid on 10 July 1923, during a ceremony attended by the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, Giovanni Antonio Colonna di Cesarò.^[2] Works began in 1924 and were completed in 1927, the date visible on the façade. Postal services were subsequently transferred from the former offices in the ex-church and convent of San Rocco in Via Turretta, now the Museum of Contemporary Art San Rocco.^[3]

In July 2022 the principal façade was restored in a conservation programme conducted by Poste Italiane in collaboration with the regional heritage authorities, returning the decoration to its original Liberty-era appearance and renewing deteriorated external elements.^[4]

The building is constructed around a trapezoidal block and rises three storeys above ground, with façades forming a monumental urban presence. The main south-facing elevation is composed of a symmetrical arrangement of recessed pointed arches (sesto acuto) framed by lesene (pilaster strips), alternating with vertical pilaster strips — a pattern that gives the façade rhythmic unity while subtly referencing Islamic-inspired arch forms, but expressed through a modern Liberty vocabulary.^[3]

Decorative motifs throughout the exterior and interior are inspired by the building’s function: stylized postal- and telecommunication-themed elements such as envelopes, telegraph insulators, cables, and Morse-code symbols appear in sculptural panels, ironwork, grilles and interior furnishings. In contrast to some earlier Liberty works, floral ornamentation is limited — instead, La Grassa favoured a disciplined, functional aesthetic, with surfaces, structural rhythm, and symbolic decoration forming a cohesive architectural statement.^[5]

Inside, the public hall is covered by a large stained-glass canopy (velario) realised by the glassmaker Pietro Bevilacqua — a collaborator of Ernesto Basile — whose colourful motifs echo the external decoration. A monumental stone-block "scala alla trapanese" staircase with exposed cantilevered treads leads to upper floors, a structural-stylistic hallmark of La Grassa’s regional work. The windows, metalwork, and interior décor combine Liberty-era stylistic elegance with the robust functional needs of a modern postal facility. The building thus represents one of the most important civic-architecture examples of early 20th-century Trapani.

• Main façade
• Interior view
• Full view of the building