Scicli

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

To access the interior of the church you have to take a curved staircase and pass through a narrow space, the endonarthex (or inner narthex). Once past this tight entrance area, you are embraced by an expansive, bright and highly decorated oval space.

The walls of the church are marked by twelve fluted half columns with Corinthian capitals between which paintings and plant decorations are inserted.
The capitals support a trabeation that follows the curved lines of the interior and stands out, with its deep blue and golden details, from the whiteness of the wall.
Near each column, above the trabeation and between the windows, are sculptures of angels.
The tension of the space and its expansion can also be felt in these details.
From the shutter of the large dome that towers above the church, six large stained glass windows open that introduce infinite shades into the sacred space.

The vault, executed by Giovanni Gianforma in 1776, is abundantly decorated with stuccoes that feature geometric shapes in shades of blue and gold, while large transversal bands branch out from the fresco in the centre.

The church ends with an apse that is more elongated than the oval plan. Behind it is a majestic aedicula where the statue of the saint is kept.
This space is richly decorated with stucco and geometric designs in blue and gold, and is illuminated by the two smaller openings on the vault, which is also decorated.

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

The Benedictines’ library

A unifying project for the city of Catania

The interior and works of art

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

The Staircase of Angels

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

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

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

The new roads of the city

The church and the college

The expansion of space and changing reality

The articulated interior spaces

The Palazzo dei due mori

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

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

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

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

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

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Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

A casket of precious works

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

The eagle-shaped city

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

A story of rebirth

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

Religious architecture

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

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

The Franciscan convent

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

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

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

The casket of austerity under the great dome

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

City and nature

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

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

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

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

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

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

The Church of St. Benedict

The palace, the town, the church

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

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

The Church of St. Francis

The city palace

The art of maiolica

The city within the city

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

The works in the church

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

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

Luminous sacred spaces

A stone garden

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

The Church of St. Paul

St. Agatha and the candelore

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

The Church of Madonna della Stella

One city, three sites

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

Art in the cathedral

Altars, saints and sculptural works

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

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

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

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

The two churches

Reconstruction after the earthquake

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

A heritage of votive works

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

The interior of the church: space and colour

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

The church and the monastery

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

A Nobel Prize in Modica

Virtuosity, decorations and altars