The city as social display: Landed elites and urban images in Charleston and Palermo

The landed elites of Charleston and Palermo successfully modified the layout of the two cities by choosing particular areas of residence in which they could express their economic and social exclusivity through 'representational' architecture. In doing this, the two landed elites constructed images of the cities which built upon already established ones acquired in previous centuries. While the old images were the symbolic expressions of the political domination of two distant states over their colonies, the new images symbolized the power of the landed aristocrats, their domination of the social and economic life of the cities, and their commitment to nationalist struggles against new and hostile political institutions.