Officine Ducrot
The former Officine Ducrot now "Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa" are one of the few areas of industrial archeology 19TH- 20TH centuries of the city of Palermo. This is an area of over 55,000 square meters behind the Norman residence della Zisa, at the end of via Dante.
Already active as factory of furniture Golia at the time of the National Exhibition of Palermo in 1891/92 and subsequently directed by the french engineer Vittorio Ducrot, In 1899 he began a collaboration with maximum local exponent of Liberty, and one of the most important at european level, Ernesto Basile.
Ducrot became owner of the company in 1902; began with 200 workers, in 1930 had 2,500 employees and was quoted on the Stock Exchange. Furniture signed by Ernesto Basile were for upper class of Palermo, were in the Grand Hotel Villa Igiea (where is still visible a resounding screen), on cruise ships of the entrepreneur Florio and even to Deputy Camber of Montecitorio in Rome, whose furnishings are signed Basile-Ducrot.
But in 1939 began the decline. The company was taken over by a financial group from Genoa, in 1940, the architect Salvatore Caronia Roberti (author of numerous villas liberty in Mondello, the lido di Palermo) project the "Palazzina aeronautica Sicula". In 1968 every activities in the area ceased, and was planned the demolition to make building area. In 1995, the municipality got the area and was opened to the public.
Today the area hosts in the various spaces the Center Culturel Francais de Palerme et de Sicile, the Goethe Institut, the library of the Gramsci Institute.
Sergio Albertini (c) 2004