Fodor's Expert Review Museo Civico Gaetano Filangieri

Housed in a 15th-century palazzo, this museum was opened in 1888 by Gaetano Filangieri, prince of Satriano, to house his large and varied collection of paintings, sculptures, porcelain, weapons, and manuscripts. The arched ceiling of the armory features a glittering golden mosaic that bears the family's coat of arms, and the Sala Agata upstairs, with its wooden tiers and majolica floor, is a museum piece in and of itself. The archive stores letters from Benjamin Franklin to Filangieri's grandfather, author of The Science of Legislation (1780); it's said that the book and its mention of the pursuit of happiness inspired the U.S. Declaration of Independence. In the 1870s, the impressive Palazzo Como became known locally as o palazzo ca cammina (the walking building), when it was moved back 65 feet, brick by brick, to widen Via Duomo.