The Cantina Borbonica was built in 1800 by order of Ferdinand III, King of Sicily (who after the Restoration became Ferdinand I, King of the two Sicilies) and it represents one of the most important civil works of our country. The royal holding, whose topography was entrusted to Giuseppe Patti, an architect from Partinico, consisted of many plots of land - about 80 salme of land (1 salma is equivalent to 17460 m²) – that Cav. Felice Lioj, land agent of the Royal Holding, bought. “A winery with wines, liqueur and oils, a warehouse, a tavern and a inn” were built within the Royal Holding and they represented the collection and business point of the Royal firm. The firm had a wide production of wheat, figs, fruit, vegetables, almonds, barley, broad beans, grapes, lentils, oats, fagiola moresca, majorca wheat, hay, oil, Indian corn, baby marrow, sumach, equivalent to a revenue of 1109 onze, 13 tarì and 2 grana. The Royal Holding had got an ammount of 227.748 plants, among which 33.847 fruit trees, 143.527 vines and many other plants, among which 69 medicinal plants.

The winery was built on the base of a project by Don Carlo Chenchi (o Chenché), a royal architect who was also assisted by Giuseppe Patti, an Architect from Partinico.
The works ended in 1802, as it is possible to infer from the sum of money that was payed to Don Carlo Chenchi in April: 4 onze and 4 tarì, the balance that was settled for his visits in Partinico on February 10 and March 17 “on the occasion of “the end of the works”
(State Archive- Royal Holding – Book 1800-1802, Vol. 2159, f.264).
The winery cost 18.000 scudos in all. It was a good investment, as the historian Stefano Marino told in 1855, because it gave work to many people and was a point of reference for the agriculture of that area.
The main entrance gives onto the provicial road to San Cipirrello and crossing the gate you go into the wide square that divides into three sections of 1350 m². In the centre of the entrance hall stands a small building probably pre-existent to the other buildings which were joined in 1800 by Carlo Chenché. This assumption is based on two considerations: the first concerns its position in the centre of the entrance hall, just like the towers of the XVI and XVII centuries, which were usually built for defending and sighting enemies; the second consideration derives from the fact that two thirds of the tower framework is completely different from the upper part. What is more, the main façade shows a trapdoor that is typical of the control towers.
We can say that this building would have been without sense, if it had been only a house or farm industry, above all during a period when it was not absolutly necessary.
The last important aesthetic observation concerns the windows in the lintel, which are inspired by Catalan forms, that is an arch with two volutes joining into a central point, like during Frederick’s period (look at the portal of the west façade in Montalbano’s Castle, in Elicona (Messina) dating back to the 14th century).
It was probably built 59 during the period of repopulation of Partinico that Frederick II of Aragon and third king of Sicily asked with a diploma issued in Trapani 1309.

Near this building and after a long passage, you can find the winery, whose main façade gives onto the entrance hall and it has got three entrances, one of which has been obstructed by building joined afterwards. The surface of the winery is about 1000 m² and the whole building presents simple roofs on a graceful set of arches, divided into three naves hold up by pillars and cross vaults. The right aisle and the nave are empty, because they probably served as storerooms for the royal firm’s agricultural products. While the left aisle was closed and used for building silos to preserve cereals and a room of 66 m² that served as millstone.
The winery is 36,50 metres in length, while the distance between the pillars is 8,70 metres.
Last, there is an undergroud room where you can enter by an outer stair, whose stairs are made of stone from Billiemi. Here you can find a bench to put the bags of grapes, while on the left there are some stone fermenting vats for wine, which still show mouths from which wine poured out.
They were also made of stone from Billiemi with a central hole for the tap where wine poured out from into containers, which were carried by mules or donkeys, as Stefano Marino tells us still today.
This is a building complex that has no equal in the South of Italy for its dimensions and is suitable to collect the products of the wide royal holding, that represents a typical example of agricultural and industrial typology.

by Tommaso Aiello