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 Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

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

The works in the church

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

The city palace

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

The interior of the church: space and colour

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

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

The Church of St. Francis

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

The church and the monastery

The palace, the town, the church

A unifying project for the city of Catania

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

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

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

City and nature

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

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

The casket of austerity under the great dome

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

A stone garden

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

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

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

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The expansion of space and changing reality

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

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

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

The two churches

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

The Staircase of Angels

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

The Church of St. Benedict

The eagle-shaped city

Reconstruction after the earthquake

The Franciscan convent

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

The Church of Madonna della Stella

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

The Church of St. Paul

The Benedictines’ library

The articulated interior spaces

Religious architecture

A heritage of votive works

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

The Palazzo dei due mori

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

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

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

The city within the city

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

A casket of precious works

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

Art in the cathedral

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

A story of rebirth

St. Agatha and the candelore

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

The new roads of the city

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

The art of maiolica

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

Luminous sacred spaces

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

The interior and works of art

The church and the college

One city, three sites

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

Altars, saints and sculptural works

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

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

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