Introduction to Val di Noto

Religious architecture

For religious buildings, the architecture of the Baroque period sought to become a guiding principle for a journey of faith through the very form of the construction and its ornaments.
The façade features the characteristic elements of the sacred building and reveals its symbolic contents in its sculptural decorations, allegories of saints, votive scrolls and dedications, kept within the rigid geometric and compositional rules typical of the architecture of this period.
The sculptural and “moved” façades lead to an interior that is rich and exciting due to the triumph of colour, stuccoes and decorations that captivate worshippers, rousing wonder and amazement, right up to the crowning moment in the vault with the mystical sight of the triumph of the Saints.

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

A stone garden

The casket of austerity under the great dome

The interior and works of art

The interior of the church: space and colour

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

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

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

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

The two churches

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

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

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

The eagle-shaped city

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

Religious architecture

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

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

The city palace

The articulated interior spaces

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

A heritage of votive works

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

The city within the city

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

One city, three sites

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

Luminous sacred spaces

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

The art of maiolica

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

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

Reconstruction after the earthquake

The church and the college

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

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

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

Art in the cathedral

A story of rebirth

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

A unifying project for the city of Catania

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

The new roads of the city

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

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

The works in the church

The Church of Madonna della Stella

The Staircase of Angels

The Church of St. Paul

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

A casket of precious works

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

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

The Church of St. Benedict

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

The expansion of space and changing reality

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

The Palazzo dei due mori

St. Agatha and the candelore

Altars, saints and sculptural works

The church and the monastery

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

A Nobel Prize in Modica

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

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

City and nature

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

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

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

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

The Church of St. Francis

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

The palace, the town, the church

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

The Franciscan convent

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

The Benedictines’ library