Agostino Sieri Pepoli

Agostino Sieri Pepoli (5 August 1848 – 1910) was an Italian nobleman and patron from Trapani, Sicily. He is best known for creating the Balio Gardens at Erice in the 1870s and for founding the civic museum in Trapani that later became the Museo regionale Agostino Pepoli.^{[1] [2]}

Sieri Pepoli was born in Trapani on 5 August 1848, the son of Riccardo Sieri Pepoli and Elisabetta Alagna, members of the Sicilian branch of the Pepoli family.^[3] The family were prominent landowners associated with the local salt pans and philanthropy in Trapani; his father Riccardo, a former mayor, was linked to the foundation of the Ospizio (Marino) Sieri Pepoli for needy children.^{[4] [5]} After travelling widely in Europe for study and collecting, he spent long periods in Bologna in the late nineteenth century.^[6]

In the 1870s Sieri Pepoli obtained a concession over the medieval Balio Towers at Erice and laid out the landscaped Balio Gardens. The gardens are part of the Grandi Giardini Italiani network.^[7] He also built the neo-Gothic Pepoli Turret (1872–1880) as a quiet retreat and a venue for cultural exchange, hosting writers, scholars and musicians of the period.^{[8] [9]}

Drawing on his private collections, he founded Trapani’s civic museum in 1906–1908; it is today the Museo regionale Agostino Pepoli.^[10] In Bologna he acquired part of Palazzo Pepoli Vecchio and portions of the family archive; by testament these were left to the Comune di Bologna for public use and display.^{[11] [12]}