Catania

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

The Benedictine Monastery is located on the hill of Montevergine and is one of the city’s largest complexes. Today it is still considered the second largest monastic complex in Europe.
A very long history marked by the passage of time (a testimony of which are the remains of the Roman domus, or house, with the remains of a mosaic floor), civilisations and natural disasters that have made it one of the most resilient and richest cultural sites on the entire island.
It was founded by the monks of Cassino in the 16th century, when the western cloister was constructed, with the large Carrara marble quatrefoil fountain completed in 1608, as well as most of the rooms used for monastery life including the kitchens, the basement cellars, the monks’ cells over two floors, the refectory and the parlour.
With the eruption of 1669, the monastery was hit by magma that surrounded the building’s walls and reached the first-storey windows. Traces of the lava flow are still visible along the retaining walls, which were built especially to divert it. In 1693 it was hit by the great earthquake and suffered serious damage.
The new monastery design included the construction of four large courtyards that would make it the largest in the world, but only two were completed, extending it by around 1450 square metres.
portale ingresso
The decision to increase the spaces allowed for the construction of the cloister of Levante where the eclectic and elegant Caffeaos was inserted.
The two external elevations, south and east, are late Baroque, marked by giant pilasters with diamond rustication and crowned with Corinthian capitals . There are windows and balconies adorned with a series of volutes, flowers, masks and nymphs.
Among these is the austere neoclassical portal of the main entrance, a late 18th-century modification.

 

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

One city, three sites

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

The city palace

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

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

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

St. Agatha and the candelore

Art in the cathedral

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

The Church of St. Francis

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

Religious architecture

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

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

The Franciscan convent

The casket of austerity under the great dome

The works in the church

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

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

The eagle-shaped city

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

A unifying project for the city of Catania

A heritage of votive works

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

The Church of Madonna della Stella

The Benedictines’ library

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

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

Reconstruction after the earthquake

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

The art of maiolica

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

The church and the monastery

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

The palace, the town, the church

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The Church of St. Benedict

Luminous sacred spaces

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

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

The articulated interior spaces

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

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

A stone garden

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

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

The Palazzo dei due mori

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

A casket of precious works

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

The interior and works of art

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

The interior of the church: space and colour

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

The city within the city

The two churches

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

A story of rebirth

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

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

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

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

The new roads of the city

The church and the college

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

The expansion of space and changing reality

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

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

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

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

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

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

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

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

Altars, saints and sculptural works

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

The Church of St. Paul

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

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

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

City and nature

The Staircase of Angels

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele