The courthouse
On September 13, 1861, after the unity of Italy, the Town Council called for the king to obtain the establishment of the courthouse, advancing among the several reasons, the difficult social conditions and the isolation from the road system. On February 9, 1862, the request was accepted and the town got this important institute, with jurisdiction that included the district of Mistretta and those of Capizzi, Cesarò, S. Fratello and S. Stefano di Camastra. The offices were located in the “Casa degli Esercizi” or “Casa Santa”, adjacent to the church of the Purgatorio, restored around 1830 on the project of the Capuchin Vincenzo Bruno.
On June 14, 1862, since the premises were not still available, the courthouse was inaugurated at the palace of Cristoforo Lo Iacono (now Portera), where it remained until 1869 when the renovation of the chosen building was completed. Around 1891, the organization of the offices was changed in order to establish a branch of the Circle of Court of Assize. In March 1923, during the Fascist regime, the court was abolished and reactivated only in 1946. After the sixties, it was decided to build a new larger location, which was erected adjacent to prison, or former Capuchin convent. The completion of the building was contracted out only in 1984. Despite its modern character within an historic context, it represented in the area the first real application of contemporary architecture, recalling some sculptural experimentations by Le Corbusier for facades of public buildings that find their maximum abstraction in the Tower of Shadows (1957-85) in the Capitol of Chandigarh (India).