Ernesto Basile Biography
Ernesto Basile (1857 – 1932) was an Italian architect, exponent of international modernism and Liberty. Son of the architect Giovan Battista Filippo, after graduating in architecture from the Royal Application School for Engineers and Architects in Palermo in 1878, he joined his father in important commissions. In 1890 he succeeded him in the university chair and, after his death (1891), he completed the most important work of nineteenth-century Palermo, the Teatro Massimo. There his collaboration was born with both the painter Ettore De Maria Bergler and Vittorio Ducrot, of the workshops of the same name, becoming the protagonists of the Palermo Liberty season. He continued to work in his city throughout his life, creating public buildings and private villas, simultaneously carrying out various commissions in different locations in Sicily and southern Italy. He also maintained relations with Rome, where he built some stately homes and the new wing of Montecitorio with the hall of the Chamber of Deputies (1902-1918) and the Transatlantic, an important hemicycle hall in which Parliament still meets today. His career as an architect in Palermo ideally took off with the pavilions for the national exhibition of Palermo in 1899 and included: Villa Igiea (1899-1900), Villa Florio dell'Olivuzza (1899-1900), Casa Utveggio (1901-1903 ), Villino Fassini (1903, now destroyed), Villino Basile (1903.1904). He also dedicated himself to the design of furniture based on avant-garde design, which made him famous in Europe.
