Vincenzo Sinatra was born in Noto around 1707 and at his second wedding married the granddaughter of Rosario Gagliardi. As well as being related, he studied and worked alongside him on the reconstruction of numerous buildings and churches, especially in Noto. The church of San Paolo (St. Paul) i...

Rosario Gagliardi was born around 1690 in Syracuse to Onofrio and Maria Conti. The family lived in Syracuse in a district called "degli Bottagherelli" until 1707, when their father moved to Noto for work. It was here that Gagliardi officially began to work as an architect. This commitment and sk...

Angelo Italia, a Sicilian architect, was born in Licata in the province of Agrigento on 8 May 1628. He was trained at his father's workshop and in architectural essays, thanks to which he learned the "modern style" of Roman origin. In 1671 he took his priestly vows in Messina, at the Jesuit order....

The city of Noto Antica, known as Netum under Roman rule, was one of the main cultural, military and economic centres of south-eastern Sicily. Completely destroyed by the 1693 earthquake, it was surrounded by majestic walls, many of which are still intact, and the deep valleys of Mount Alveria. ...

The consequences of the earthquake forced the Spanish authorities, who ruled Sicily at the time to focus on this emergency. Giuseppe Lanza, Duke of Camastra, was appointed vicar general for the reconstruction of the Val di Noto. The decision was not accidental; the nobleman had already participa...

Discovering the origin of a name is always extremely fascinating. For Catania we must return to the time of the Sicels, a population that inhabited Sicily before the Greeks. They called their village "Katana", meaning grater, to emphasise the irregular and porous surface of the solidified lava. Ov...

Cicero tells us that in Agrigento, in the cella (shrine) of the Temple of Heracles, there was a beautiful bronze statue dedicated to the demigod, so ardently venerated that it was ruined at the chin and mouth, because of the kisses that worshippers left as a sign of their adoration. Verres, governo...

As often happens with the temples of Agrigento, the traditional name of the Hera Lacinia temple is also wrong. The mistake is due to the confusion with the Temple of Juno Lacinia mentioned by Pliny the Elder and located on the Lacinium promontory in Crotone, in Calabria....

In the architecture of the classical world, the term trabeation indicates three horizontally overlapping architectural elements that join the columns and support the weight of the roof. These are: the architrave, which rests on the capitals of the columns; the frieze, an often richly sculpted orna...

Timoleon was a Corinthian general from the 4th century BC, famous for killing his brother Timophanes, who had tried to proclaim himself tyrant of Corinth. For this reason, he was called upon by the Sicilians of Syracuse to protect the city from the tyrant Dionysius the Younger and the threat of th...