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 story of the Church of Santa Maria del Monte

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

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

St. Agatha and the candelore

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

Religious architecture

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

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

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

The Church of Madonna della Stella

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The church and the monastery

City and nature

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

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

The city within the city

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

The expansion of space and changing reality

The interior and works of art

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

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

A casket of precious works

The church and the college

The Church of St. Francis

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

Luminous sacred spaces

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

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

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

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

The palace, the town, the church

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

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

The Palazzo dei due mori

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

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

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

A stone garden

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

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

The Church of St. Paul

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

One city, three sites

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

Art in the cathedral

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

The two churches

The new roads of the city

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

The interior of the church: space and colour

The works in the church

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

The casket of austerity under the great dome

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

A unifying project for the city of Catania

The articulated interior spaces

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

Altars, saints and sculptural works

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

A heritage of votive works

The Staircase of Angels

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

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

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

Reconstruction after the earthquake

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

The Benedictines’ library

The Church of St. Benedict

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

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

The art of maiolica

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

The city palace

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

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

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

A story of rebirth

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

The eagle-shaped city

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

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

The Franciscan convent