Caltagirone

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

This precious work was brought to Caltagirone by the noble Campochiaro family and donated to the Mother Church at the end of the 16th century.
The work consists of two painted sides, i.e. two icons or “cone“. During celebrations the work would be displayed showing the side of Christ, also called Dominus, hence the name Cona Domini. Whenever the city was struck by natural disasters or other evils, the side of the Virgin was shown so that worshippers could pray to her as they waited for a miracle. The masterpiece was so important and adored by the community that on 10 July 1644, she was declared patron saint of the city by public deed and was crowned with a golden crown on 31st May by Monsignor Luigi Bignami, the same day she is still celebrated today.
The Feast of the Madonna di Conadomini is celebrated in a particularly solemn way culminating in the offering of gifts from the earth following a large procession.
The procession is formed of farmers’ wagons and tractors decorated with rusedda, or bundles of cistus plant, accompanied by the sound of brogne, large seashells turned into sombre-sounding wind instruments.
Preceded by a banner called the triunfu with the sacred image of the Madonna di Conadomini, the procession climbs the 142 steps of the monumental and multicoloured Staircase of St. Mary of the Mountain, which is also coloured by the infiorata , as the city’s solemn and devout homage to its co-patron saint.

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

A unifying project for the city of Catania

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

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

The two churches

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

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

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

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

City and nature

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

Altars, saints and sculptural works

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

The casket of austerity under the great dome

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

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

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

The new roads of the city

The interior and works of art

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

The Franciscan convent

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

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

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

A story of rebirth

The church and the monastery

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

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

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

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

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

The Church of Madonna della Stella

The Church of St. Benedict

Religious architecture

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

A heritage of votive works

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

A stone garden

The Palazzo dei due mori

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

Art in the cathedral

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

The interior of the church: space and colour

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

Luminous sacred spaces

The city within the city

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

The expansion of space and changing reality

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

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

The city palace

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

The church and the college

The art of maiolica

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

The Church of St. Paul

A casket of precious works

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

The articulated interior spaces

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

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

One city, three sites

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

The eagle-shaped city

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

The Staircase of Angels

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

The palace, the town, the church

St. Agatha and the candelore

Reconstruction after the earthquake

The works in the church

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

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

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

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

The Church of St. Francis

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

The Benedictines’ library

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition