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.

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

The Church of St. Paul

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

The palace, the town, the church

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

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

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

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

The Palazzo dei due mori

The Church of St. Benedict

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

The Benedictines’ library

Art in the cathedral

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

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

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

The Church of Madonna della Stella

The interior of the church: space and colour

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

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

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

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

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

A story of rebirth

A unifying project for the city of Catania

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

The new roads of the city

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

The city within the city

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

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

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

A heritage of votive works

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

Altars, saints and sculptural works

The works in the church

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

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

The Franciscan convent

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

The articulated interior spaces

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

A stone garden

Luminous sacred spaces

Reconstruction after the earthquake

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

The city palace

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

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

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

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

The casket of austerity under the great dome

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

The Church of St. Francis

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

The eagle-shaped city

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The expansion of space and changing reality

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

The church and the college

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

The art of maiolica

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

City and nature

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

One city, three sites

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

A casket of precious works

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

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

The Staircase of Angels

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

St. Agatha and the candelore

Religious architecture

The interior and works of art

The two churches

The church and the monastery

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