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.

St. Agatha and the candelore

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

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

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

City and nature

A story of rebirth

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

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

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

A stone garden

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

One city, three sites

A unifying project for the city of Catania

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

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

Reconstruction after the earthquake

The two churches

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

The Franciscan convent

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

The Church of St. Francis

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

A heritage of votive works

The city within the city

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

The interior of the church: space and colour

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

Luminous sacred spaces

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

Religious architecture

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

Altars, saints and sculptural works

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

The Church of St. Benedict

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

A casket of precious works

The Staircase of Angels

The new roads of the city

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

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

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

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

The articulated interior spaces

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

The palace, the town, the church

The works in the church

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

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

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

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

The eagle-shaped city

The church and the college

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

The casket of austerity under the great dome

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

Art in the cathedral

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

A Nobel Prize in Modica

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

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

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

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

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

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

The Benedictines’ library

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

The interior and works of art

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

The art of maiolica

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

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

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

The expansion of space and changing reality

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

The Church of Madonna della Stella

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

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

The church and the monastery

The city palace

The Palazzo dei due mori

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

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

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

The Church of St. Paul