Catania

Altars, saints and sculptural works

dettaglio inquadrando candelabri

 

Inside the church the decorative display catches our eye, the only element of colour apart from the two-tone floor in the white sacred space.
The main altar, which occupies the majestic frontal apse , is dedicated to St. Agatha, flanked by two putti.
The statue, made of marble stucco, a painting technique that imitates marble, is portrayed in ecstasy, its eyes turned skywards.
The other four altars, created by Giovanni Battista Marino , are dedicated to the martyr St. Euplius, a fellow citizen of St. Agatha, St. Benedict, St. Joseph and the Child and the Immaculate Conception.

Altare minore Altare minore Altare minore Altare minore
The altars are flanked by some other works of the highest artistic, evocative and symbolic value. Among these is the wooden crucifix by Ignazio Carnazza completed in 1696.
The work rests on a yellow marble background from which a red marble decoration continues downwards, depicting a fabric cloth with fringes and bows.
This element, though made of hard, cold stone, has such a realistic appearance that it appears soft and animated in the eyes of the beholder.
The work was commissioned by the governing abbess Giuseppa Maria Scammacca. Below it is the nuns’ “grating of professions”, a work by the Bonaventura brothers.

The two churches

A casket of precious works

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

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

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

The Church of St. Paul

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

The church and the college

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

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

Art in the cathedral

The new roads of the city

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

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

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

A Nobel Prize in Modica

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

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

The city palace

Altars, saints and sculptural works

The eagle-shaped city

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

The Palazzo dei due mori

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

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

The Church of St. Benedict

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

The city within the city

The Benedictines’ library

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

The Franciscan convent

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

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

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

The Church of Madonna della Stella

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

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

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

Religious architecture

The art of maiolica

A stone garden

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

The works in the church

The interior of the church: space and colour

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

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

The expansion of space and changing reality

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

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

The church and the monastery

The interior and works of art

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

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

The palace, the town, the church

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

The Staircase of Angels

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

The casket of austerity under the great dome

Luminous sacred spaces

A story of rebirth

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

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

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

Reconstruction after the earthquake

The Church of St. Francis

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

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

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

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

City and nature

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

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

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

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

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

A heritage of votive works

One city, three sites

A unifying project for the city of Catania

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

The articulated interior spaces

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

St. Agatha and the candelore

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio