Noto

A stone garden

Built over half a century by the best architects, stonemasons and master builders, the city of Noto is a harmonious ensemble of homogeneous colours, a Baroque city assembled by volumes, lines and perspectives, defined by UNESCO as “representing the culmination and final flowering of Baroque art in Europe”. The intervention of the architect Angelo Italia was fundamental in organising the city space in that with the creation of splendid scenographic effects, he transformed squares and streets into stages and theatre flats.
The element that makes this city so magnificent and harmonious is the use of local white limestone, which, with the passing of time and the effect of the sun, has been tinged with golden and pink shades, made even more vivid by the light of sunset that rests on the corbels, capitals, friezes and columns. It was called “the stone garden” by the famous restoration expert Cesare Brandi .

The choice of white limestone as the main element in the reconstruction of the city of Noto was dictated by the quarries surrounding the area, which facilitated its extraction and transport to the city.
Limestone is also soft and easy to work, and so it is still used by stonemasons and craftspeople to create imaginative and complex shapes today. This said, at the same time, it is a fragile and delicate stone that requires constant care and restoration.

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

The church and the college

The palace, the town, the church

The interior of the church: space and colour

The eagle-shaped city

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

The Franciscan convent

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

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

The city palace

The city within the city

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

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

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

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

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

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

Luminous sacred spaces

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

The art of maiolica

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

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

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

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

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

The Staircase of Angels

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

The articulated interior spaces

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

The casket of austerity under the great dome

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

The two churches

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

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

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

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

A unifying project for the city of Catania

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

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

The Church of St. Paul

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

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

The church and the monastery

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

A stone garden

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

A casket of precious works

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

City and nature

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

The works in the church

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

Art in the cathedral

The Palazzo dei due mori

The interior and works of art

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

The Church of St. Francis

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

A story of rebirth

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

Reconstruction after the earthquake

Altars, saints and sculptural works

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

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

The Church of Madonna della Stella

The Benedictines’ library

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

Religious architecture

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

The Church of St. Benedict

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

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

The expansion of space and changing reality

One city, three sites

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

The new roads of the city

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

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

St. Agatha and the candelore

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

A heritage of votive works

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix