A palace for the Inquisition of Palermo: urban space, conflicts and power relationships

Abstract

This article analyses the process of stabilizing the seat of the Spanish Inquisition of Sicily in the city of Palermo. If we consider urban space in the Old Regime as a "scenario" for social, economic and political expressions, the study of the objectives, tensions and negotiations that were staged around the occupations, evictions and transfers experienced by the seat of the Inquisitorial Court in Palermo, allows to specify the dynamics, in terms of competition-cooperation, conflict-negotiation, subordination and pre-eminence, on which the position of the Inquisitorial Court was configured in the jurisdictional, political, institutional and social space of the city, the Kingdom of Sicily and the Spanish Monarchy in the 16^th century.