The hard stone factories in Palermo and the Congregation of the Oratory of San Filippo Neri
From the “Opificio di Pietre Dure”, established in Florence by the Medici in the 16th century, the
particular processing of hard stones has radiated to other regions of Italy. It was an activity carried
out by highly specialized workers and with a few other centers of excellence like Naples where, in
1737, Charles of Bourbon established the “Real Laboratorio di Pietre”. In Palermo, from the first
twenty years of the seventeenth century until the nineteenth century, a manufacturing tradition of
equal value is documented continuously, but it is unknown to specialist studies. The Oratorians
were its proponents and also main clients, they in the chapel of their founder Filippo Neri adorned
the altar with hard stones (1620-1622) like the similar one in the church of Vallicella in Rome.
In their church of St. Ignatius martyr we also find other admirable architectural works and many
sacred ornaments in hard stones that were made with the technical support of a “opificio” inside the
religious community.
