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.

The art of maiolica

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

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

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

The eagle-shaped city

The Franciscan convent

The city palace

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

The Staircase of Angels

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

Luminous sacred spaces

The casket of austerity under the great dome

A stone garden

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

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

The Church of St. Francis

The Church of Madonna della Stella

The Benedictines’ library

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

The interior of the church: space and colour

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

The Church of St. Paul

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

The interior and works of art

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

A heritage of votive works

Religious architecture

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

The city within the city

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

The expansion of space and changing reality

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

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

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

The church and the college

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

A story of rebirth

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

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

One city, three sites

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

St. Agatha and the candelore

Reconstruction after the earthquake

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

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

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

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

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

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

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

A casket of precious works

City and nature

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

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

The church and the monastery

Altars, saints and sculptural works

The Church of St. Benedict

The new roads of the city

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

The articulated interior spaces

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

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

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

A unifying project for the city of Catania

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

The two churches

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

The palace, the town, the church

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

The Palazzo dei due mori

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

Art in the cathedral

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

The works in the church

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

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom