Militello in Val di Catania

A new site for a new church

The chiesa madre di San Nicolò e del Santissimo Salvatore (Mother Church of St. Nicholas and the Holy Saviour) is located on the corner of Via Umberto I and Via Matrice.
It is the result of a long and complex reconstruction following the earthquake of 1693.
Three years after the earthquake the Bishop of Syracuse, on a visit to Militello, ordered the construction of the new church and it was here that problems began. The citizens were divided between those who wanted to rebuild the church in the same place and those who wanted to rebuild it on a safer site; it took 28 years before a definitive location was found.
The foundation stone was laid on 6 December 1721 at the new site, where the present church is located today.
At this point, the reconstruction work was fairly quick: on 20 March 1740, when the church was blessed, the central and lateral naves were almost complete; around 1750, the façade designed by the architect Girolamo Palazzotto was finished; in 1765, the bell tower designed by the architect Francesco Battaglia , from Catania was added, which was joined by the bells and clock eleven years later.
The bell tower on the right was the only one built, thus breaking up the symmetry of the façade. The church was built with the help of many benefactors including the Marquis Nicolò Placido Branciforte and the Abbot Malacria.

The church of San Nicolò and the Most Holy Saviour
The church of San Nicolò and the Most Holy Saviour has an elevated entrance with respect to the road level and can be reached through two side staircases that have twenty-seven steps. The facade is divided horizontally into three levels: the first includes the large central portal, inserted between two pairs of columns and which is closed over by a broken arched tympanum; the two side doors, called “of the sun” and “of the moon”, are surmounted by a window; the second order has in the center a large window with a triangular tympanum on top; the third order, finally, closes the structure, has the shape of a broken arched tympanum and on the top there is a cross supported by a head of cherub. On the right side of the facade is the only bell tower, the left one was not built and the symmetry of the facade is broken.
The senses tell the story of the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista

The Barresi-Branciforte lords

A symbol for the town

The Benedictine Monastery, one of the largest in Europe

The senses tell the story of the church of San Giuseppe

The façade used as a puppet theatre

San Benedetto: a treasure reopened to the public

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

The Supernatural dimension of the chapel of the Santissimo Sacramento

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

Rosario Gagliardi, the maestro of the Val di Noto

From International Gothic to present day

St. Agatha and the giant candelabras

The Staircase of Angels

The disastrous earthquake

Feast days

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

The senses tell the story of the Badia di Sant’Agata

A design by Vincenzo Sinatra

A colourful floor

New roads for Catania

The senses tell the story of the church of San Giovanni Battista

A city in colour

The internal colours

Militello, the story of an enlightened fiefdom

The Burgos crucifix

The senses tell about Palazzo Napolino Tommasi Rosso

A talking palace

A long reconstruction

One city, two sites

A triumph of colour

The city of museums

From St. Thomas to St. Joseph

Two illustrious patron saints

The chocolate of Modica

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Giuliano ai Crociferi

Modica, a city with ancient origins

The senses tell the story of the Church of the Annunciation

The kitchen, a treasure chest of colours

San Nicolò l’Arena: an unfinished church

The Feast of San Giacomo (St. James)

Some prestigious works

The Infiorata, a feast of colours and flowers

The Baroque town by the sea

A new site for a new city

A small room with a golden entrance

The senses tell the Mother Church of San Nicolò and of the Santissimo Salvatore

A feast only for Scicli

Palazzo Nicolaci di Villadorata, who is the architect?

Wonderful quick decorations

The senses tell about Palazzo La Rocca

One city, three sites

An eagle-shaped city

Some masterpieces

Freedom of worship and the role of the Catholic Church in the diffusion of Baroque

St. Sebastian, so much work!

A hall for the feasts

The senses tell the Benedictine Monastery and San NicoIò l’Arena

The senses tell the story of the church of Santa Maria del Carmelo

Many owners, one palace

The senses tell about Palazzo Nicolaci

Limestone, the colour of harmony

Norman apses

Connections with other UNESCO sites

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

A new entrance for Santa Chiara (St. Claire)

Baroque and the loss of equilibrium in the 16th century

Between white and black

A majestic and luminous church

The Maiolica of the staircase

A Nobel Prize in Modica

Places of knowledge: the Benedictines’ library

Corbels: a celebration of the Nicolaci family

The role of the religious orders in rebuilding the Val di Noto

Feasting in Palazzolo

The wall comes to life

A half-Baroque church

A museum to save a tradition

A new palace for the La Rocca lords

A miniature city

The senses tell the story of the staircase of Santa Maria del Monte

The character of Badia Sant’Agata

A prominent church

Discovering the mother church

Prominent façade

The two churches

The interior and its masterpieces

The theatre of taste

Searching for colour

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

Church of San Giuliano (St. Julian) on Via dei Crociferi: reconstruction

A square as the heart of the city

From the contrast of the exterior to the internal jubilation of colours

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Sebastiano

The colours of the cathedral

The church of Carmine

The cathedral of Sant’Agata: a lengthy reconstruction

A new site for a new church

Fontana della Ninfa Zizza, public water in the town