Catania

The new roads of the city

The reconstruction and reorganisation of the streets of Catania was based on some rules including the standard width of around 16, 12 or 8 metres, depending on whether they were main or secondary roads, and a geometric model set on a grid that was not rigidly orthogonal ), but conducted by four main road axes.
These axes were Via Etnea, Via San Giuliano, Via Vittorio Emanuele and Via Giuseppe Garibaldi.
Via Etnea was designed to create a long, straight road starting from Piazza Duomo and crossing with Via San Giuliano. To date, it still connects the Montevergine district to the sea, intersecting with it to form the scenic crossroads of the “ Quattro Canti ” square.
San Giuliano
The other two road axes built, Via Vittorio Emanuele and Via Giuseppe Garibaldi, today link Piazza Duomo, the heart of the city, to the old city.
via Vittorio Emanuele via Garibaldi piazza Duomo
Another fundamental axis, though smaller in size, is Via dei Crociferi, a road just over one hundred metres long where Catania’s most representative Baroque examples of churches and convents were built. Work to reorganise the roads was led by labourers from Calabria and around Etna, who were experts in the removal of lava stone blocks.
The new road layout brought great advantages to the city of Catania, not only for the beauty of the new architecture, but also because it facilitated connections and allowed for large, scenic and dynamic spaces to be created where citizens could find safe refuge in the event of an earthquake.

The church and the monastery

The Benedictines’ library

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

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

A casket of precious works

Art in the cathedral

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

The Staircase of Angels

A story of rebirth

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

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

Religious architecture

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

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

The two churches

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

One city, three sites

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

The palace, the town, the church

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

The new roads of the city

The interior of the church: space and colour

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

Altars, saints and sculptural works

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

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

A stone garden

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

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

The Palazzo dei due mori

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

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

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

City and nature

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

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

The Church of Madonna della Stella

The casket of austerity under the great dome

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

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

The art of maiolica

The Church of St. Benedict

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

Reconstruction after the earthquake

The works in the church

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

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

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

The city palace

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

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

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

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

The Church of St. Paul

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

The Church of St. Francis

The expansion of space and changing reality

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

Luminous sacred spaces

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

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

The eagle-shaped city

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

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

A heritage of votive works

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

A unifying project for the city of Catania

The interior and works of art

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

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

The church and the college

St. Agatha and the candelore

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The articulated interior spaces

The city within the city

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

The Franciscan convent

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio