Italy · Sicilia · Palermo
Monte Pellegrino, Palermo — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Monte Pellegrino is an isolated carbonate promontory on the northern coast of Palermo, and the highest ground within the city perimeter.
About Monte Pellegrino
Where to stay in Monte Pellegrino
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Rooms sit below the rock. Monte Pellegrino is reserve ground rather than a residential quarter, so the real choice runs between the seafront at Mondello, against the bay the promontory closes, and central Palermo beneath the slope where the city's own streets carry the hotels. Nothing is bookable on the summit.
Addaura cave sits on the flank, and the promontory is visible from every area on which the city stands.
About Monte Pellegrino
What are the main landmarks in Monte Pellegrino?
Two churches are on the list. The chiesa di Janua Coeli and the chiesa di Maria Santissima Regina degli Apostoli are both filed against Monte Pellegrino, while the older record on the promontory is the Paleolithic graffiti of the Addaura cave, among the few rock-art finds in the Mediterranean. The reserve holds the rest.
Its protection as a Special Area of Conservation came in 1992, from the European Commission.
What is the history of Monte Pellegrino?
The oldest marks are cut in stone. Paleolithic graffiti in the Addaura cave place people on Monte Pellegrino long before Palermo took its present shape, and the find counts among the few examples of rock art recorded in the Mediterranean area. Fossils came from the same rock.
In 1996 the promontory became the heart of a natural reserve carrying its own name, four years after the European Commission identified it as a Special Area of Conservation.
Where is Monte Pellegrino?
Monte Pellegrino reaches 606 metres above the sea, closing the Gulf of Palermo and marking the eastern border of the bay of Mondello, with the Tyrrhenian Sea beyond.
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Updated September 2026