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 senses tell the Church of San Michele

The Church of St. Benedict

The eagle-shaped city

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

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

The works in the church

The Church of Madonna della Stella

The Church of St. Paul

City and nature

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

A casket of precious works

The Benedictines’ library

The expansion of space and changing reality

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

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

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

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

The new roads of the city

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

The Staircase of Angels

The articulated interior spaces

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

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

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

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

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

The city palace

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

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

The interior of the church: space and colour

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

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

The church and the college

Reconstruction after the earthquake

A heritage of votive works

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

A story of rebirth

The Palazzo dei due mori

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

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

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

Art in the cathedral

St. Agatha and the candelore

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

A stone garden

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

The interior and works of art

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

The palace, the town, the church

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

The casket of austerity under the great dome

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

One city, three sites

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

Altars, saints and sculptural works

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

The church and the monastery

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

A unifying project for the city of Catania

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

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

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

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

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

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

Luminous sacred spaces

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

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

The art of maiolica

The city within the city

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

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

The Church of St. Francis

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

The Franciscan convent

The two churches

Religious architecture

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro