Villino Nasi

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Explore the architecture of Villino Nasi, its exceptional maritime setting, the work of Giuseppe Manzo and Francesco La Grassa, and the political career of the man for whom it was built.

A villa at the edge of Trapani

The setting of Villino Nasi is fundamental to its architectural character. The building occupies a rocky projection at the extreme western end of the Trapani peninsula, beyond much of the dense urban fabric of the historic city.

Its position places it within a distinctive maritime landscape between Torre di Ligny, at the tip of the peninsula, and the Castello della Colombaia, standing offshore at the entrance to the harbour.

Villino Nasi was therefore conceived not as an urban palazzo but as a comparatively isolated seaside residence. Its terraces and openings exploit this unusual position, establishing a particularly close relationship between the building and the surrounding sea.

Giuseppe Manzo and Francesco La Grassa

The first phase of Villino Nasi dates to 1898, when engineer Giuseppe Manzo designed a single-storey residence for Nunzio Nasi.

The building was substantially enlarged in 1907 by Francesco La Grassa (1876–1952), a Trapanese engineer and architect who became one of the leading figures in the architectural transformation of the city during the early twentieth century. His work combined Liberty design with an innovative interest in modern construction techniques, particularly reinforced concrete.

At Villino Nasi, La Grassa added the upper floor and designed a distinctive open helical staircase in reinforced concrete. This belongs to the type known as the scala alla trapanese, a form particularly associated with his architectural work. The use of reinforced concrete allowed the staircase to develop as a light, continuous spiral, making its structure itself an expressive architectural feature.

La Grassa went on to design or work on several important buildings in Trapani, including Palazzo delle Poste, Casina delle Palme and Palazzo Montalto. His intervention at Villino Nasi therefore places the villa within the wider architectural renewal of Trapani around the beginning of the twentieth century.

The Liberty interiors

The transformation of Villino Nasi was not limited to its external form. Documentation of the building records Liberty-style interiors, period decorative schemes and surviving furnishings associated with its use as a private residence.

Painted decoration is attributed to Saporito, while the combination of decorative interiors, terraces and the new architectural elements introduced during the early twentieth century gave the villa a character distinct from its original single-storey form of 1898.

Together with La Grassa’s intervention, these features place Villino Nasi within the period in which Trapani’s architecture was moving beyond nineteenth-century eclecticism towards the Liberty style and new approaches to construction.

Nunzio Nasi

Nunzio Nasi (1850–1935) was born in Trapani and trained in law before entering teaching and politics. Elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1886, he developed a particularly strong political following in his native city and became one of the most prominent Sicilian politicians of the Liberal period.

His national career reached its height around the time Villino Nasi was built. In 1898 he became Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, and in 1901 Minister of Public Education in the government of Giuseppe Zanardelli.

Nasi’s career was subsequently dominated by a major political and judicial scandal concerning expenditure at the Ministry of Public Education. Convicted of peculation in 1908, he was temporarily excluded from public office but retained remarkable popular support in Trapani. He subsequently returned to Parliament and remained politically active until the establishment of the Fascist dictatorship.

He died at Erice in 1935.