Pirandello House Museum

Contrada Caos Villaseta Agrigento SS 115. Phone: 0922511826

• Opening times: every day 9.00 – 19.00. Sundays and holidays 9-13
• Admission: 4,00 €, concessions: 2,00 €
• Visit to the tomb: 9.00 to one hour before sunset.

The birthplace of Luigi Pirandello is located in a country district, overlooking the sea, called “Chaos”, at the border between the territory of the municipality of Agrigento (4 km) and that of the town of Porto Empedocles. It is situated along the 115 State Road, past Villaseta.

The house was originally a rural building from late eighteenth century, belonging to the Ricci- Gramitto family, ancestors of the writer’s mother. Here, Caterina Ricci Gramitto, mother of Luigi, had taken refuge to escape the severe cholera epidemic that raged in 1867 in Sicily. Passed to other owners following the economic collapse of the Pirandello family, the building was damaged in 1943 by the explosion of a nearby ammunition dump and was declared a national monument in 1949. As a result of ‘acquisition in 1952 by the Region of Sicily, were undertaken restoration work which gave the place its present appearance.

The rooms on the top floor with views of the surrounding countryside display memorabilia, personal belongings, photographs, honors, reviews, letters, manuscripts and first editions of books with autograph dedications, posters of his most famous plays and a Greek vase which was used to translate his ashes from the Verano cemetery to Agrigento. The ground floor houses temporary exhibitions dedicated to Pirandello.

Since 1987, the Pirandello’s House Museum is a single institution with the Biblioteca Luigi Pirandello, which is based in Agrigento.

“… let the funerary urn be taken to Sicily and interred in a rough stone in the countryside of Girgenti where I was born”

A nearby path through the fields leads to the site of the famous Pine tree, unfortunately no longer existing because it was badly damaged by a tornado in 1997. Here, to fulfill the desire expressed by the writer in his will, a memorial stone carved by the sculptor Marino Mazzacurati hosts the urn with the ashes of Luigi Pirandello.