Ragusa

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

The construction of San Giorgio by the clergy and the Hyblaean aristocrats was not only entrusted to the skill of local master builders, but made use of the valuable presence of the architect Rosario Gagliardi , who executed the project.

The cathedral of San Giorgio
The cathedral of San Giorgio is one of the most iconic baroque buildings that was built by one of the most important architects of the time: Rosario Gagliardi. It stands on top of a staircase of 54 steps enclosed in a wrought iron gate and stands as a scenic fifth of the irregular square in front. The facade has the characteristic type of the tower-Sicilian facade divided into three bands that tighten upwards increasing the slender effect. The lower band is marked in the central part by three columns on each side that frame the large portal stone access, the sides instead have two smaller entrance portals and three other columns on each side, surmounted by two volutes of modest size. Here are placed the statues of San Giorgio and San Giacomo.

The works, which lasted a long time, even with donations, began in 1738 and ended with the completion of the façade in 1775, while the dome was built around 1810.
At that time, Gagliardi was at the height of his career for the construction of numerous buildings in the city of Noto, including the indisputable attribution of San Domenico, of which San Giorgio is a transformation with vertical thrust.
The impressive scenographic effect was to surpass the rival church of San Giovanni Battista (St. John the Baptist) that occupied the Patro plateau in the new Ragusa.
The beautiful Baroque church of San Giorgio is located in the charming streets of Ibla, in the oldest district of Ragusa. Before the earthquake of 1693, the city’s original mother church stood in the east of the township, where the Giardino Ibleo (Hyblaean Garden) is now located.
The garden houses the old 15th-century portal of the church that no longer exists.
The present church of San Giorgio stands in a central position, replacing the Church of San Nicola.
Considered one of the masterpieces of the Hyblaean Baroque, the building can be reached by a staircase of over 50 steps and acts as a scenic backdrop to the irregular and slightly sloping square. The bell tower façade, of Sicilian tradition, aimed at creating a two-dimensional backdrop, in San Giorgio is transformed into a tower façade thanks to the skilful use of overlapping walls, ending in the belfry, achieving an unprecedented solution in Italian Baroque.
The front of the façade is slightly shifted with respect to the trajectory of the space, increasing the vertical thrust of the church’s mass.
drone San Giorgio

Verticality and dynamism of the façade of the Church of San Carlo

The Staircase of Angels

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

The church of San Nicolò l’Arena: the majesty of an unfinished beauty

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

A story of rebirth

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

The art of maiolica

The Palazzo dei due mori

The expansion of space and changing reality

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

The church and the college

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

The Franciscan convent

City and nature

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

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

The eagle-shaped city

The senses tell the story of the Sanctuary Church of Santa Maria della Stella

A unifying project for the city of Catania

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

One city, three sites

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

Geometry and wonder in civic architecture in the Baroque of the Val di Noto

The casket of austerity under the great dome

The Church of St. Benedict

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

The interior of the church: space and colour

The church and the monastery

The Church of St. Paul

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

A casket of precious works

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

The new roads of the city

The two churches

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

Piazza Duomo, the elephant fountain, the heart of the city

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

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

The interior and works of art

The Church of St. Francis

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

Religious architecture

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

The articulated interior spaces

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Carlo and the former Jesuit college

The Duomo di San Giorgio (Cathedral of St. George)

St. Agatha and the candelore

Barresi-Branciforte: the lords of the fiefdom and the modernisation of the town

The senses tell the Benedictine Monastery and the Church of San Nicolò l’Arena

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

The palace, the town, the church

A stone garden

The Benedictines’ library

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

The works in the church

Altars, saints and sculptural works

Views denied, views conquered: the power of the devout Benedictines

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

The city within the city

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

The Badia di Sant’Agata (St. Agatha’s Abbey)

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

A heritage of votive works

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

The neo-Gothic seminary chapel: symbols, light and space

The Church of Madonna della Stella

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

The freedom of worship and the Catholic Church’s role in the diffusion of Baroque

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

Luminous sacred spaces

The city palace

Reconstruction after the earthquake

Art in the cathedral