Sylos, as reported the inscription located between the loggia and the top of the palace (trabeazione).
The edification of the palace was completed in 1584 with the loggia on the first floor, in an extraordinary Renaissance style. The eight arches and the four niches of the loggia are embellished by symbols of the four cardinal virtues and by sylos family’s emblems (a cross and three shells, an iconographic attribute of S.Giacomo di Compostera) and by emblems that belonged to families relatives to the Sylos family (Vulpano, Sersale, Calò).
Under the loggia, there is the very ancient church of Ognissanti, connected on the inside by a scale, subsequently eliminated from the bishop De Crescienzio.
On via Mercanti, the portal of entry, in Tuscan ashlars-work, is characterized on the summit part by portraits of Giovanni Alfonso Sylos and his wife Laura Pietà. Everything is crowned by a large trabeation ending with two medallions representing Julius Cesar and August. Between these two medallions there is a band in which there is a hymn addressed to Jesus Christ: “CRISTUS VINCIT CRISTUS REGNAT CRISTUS IMPERAT”.
On via Mercanti new scenes were opened, not foreseen in the original plant, adapted to workshops in the 19th century. The inscription “ GIOVANNI NOBILE DEL CASATO DEI SYLOS FECE NEL 1584 PER GLI OSPITI CHE SI COMPORTANO BUONI E ONESTI” (“The noble Giovanni Sylos did in 1584 for the guests who behave good and honest”) appears along the cornice of balustrade on a palace in Cavour square in Bitonto.
Through the portal of entry, you access to a hall that illuminates an arcade characterized by slender columns become refined thanks to precious capitals in Corinthian style.
In the North-East corner of the court there is a scale at two ramps fitted with comfortable steps that open the view to the upper floors. The palace will be the seat of a National Gallery with the intent to collect the De Vanna’s collection.
