Noto

The senses tell about Palazzo Nicolaci

hearing
The voices of the Infiorata festival

If we lived in Palazzo Nicolaci and were in one of the rooms overlooking Via Corrado Nicolaci, on the third Sunday in May we would hear voices in the street.
On this day, the Saluto alla Primavera (Greeting to Spring) is celebrated, also known as the Infiorata, which attracts many people to Noto.
Every year, depending on the theme, sixteen pictures are created with petals and the street is filled with voices.
You would hear comments about the pictures, the clicking of cameras, children running up and down the street and people greeting one another for the occasion.

sight
The journey of the Sun

The hall of feasts, or yellow room, hosted banquets and social events to which all the nobles of the surrounding area were invited.
Our attention is drawn to the room’s ceiling fresco, where Apollo is depicted driving the chariot of the Sun.
In this representation the sun takes the same exact path that it takes over the city of Noto.
No detail was left to chance! The Sun, the light, that which illuminates and gives life was painted as faithfully as in reality.

Rosario Gagliardi, the maestro of the Val di Noto

Places of knowledge: the Benedictines’ library

The Infiorata, a feast of colours and flowers

The chocolate of Modica

A hall for the feasts

The cathedral of Sant’Agata: a lengthy reconstruction

Wonderful quick decorations

A small room with a golden entrance

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

A feast only for Scicli

The internal colours

New roads for Catania

From International Gothic to present day

The senses tell the story of the church of San Giuseppe

A museum to save a tradition

The façade used as a puppet theatre

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Sebastiano

Prominent façade

Searching for colour

Freedom of worship and the role of the Catholic Church in the diffusion of Baroque

San Benedetto: a treasure reopened to the public

The interior and its masterpieces

The theatre of taste

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

A half-Baroque church

Church of San Giuliano (St. Julian) on Via dei Crociferi: reconstruction

Palazzo Nicolaci di Villadorata, who is the architect?

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

A new site for a new church

Feasting in Palazzolo

Baroque and the loss of equilibrium in the 16th century

The Burgos crucifix

A city in colour

A talking palace

The Barresi-Branciforte lords

Discovering the mother church

A new palace for the La Rocca lords

A majestic and luminous church

The church of Carmine

Some masterpieces

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

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

The senses tell about Palazzo Nicolaci

One city, two sites

St. Agatha and the giant candelabras

The Benedictine Monastery, one of the largest in Europe

The Staircase of Angels

Connections with other UNESCO sites

A new entrance for Santa Chiara (St. Claire)

A colourful floor

St. Sebastian, so much work!

A new site for a new city

The disastrous earthquake

From St. Thomas to St. Joseph

Norman apses

A design by Vincenzo Sinatra

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

A square as the heart of the city

The senses tell the story of the Church of the Annunciation

The colours of the cathedral

Two illustrious patron saints

A triumph of colour

A symbol for the town

San Nicolò l’Arena: an unfinished church

The Baroque town by the sea

The senses tell about Palazzo Napolino Tommasi Rosso

The wall comes to life

The senses tell about Palazzo La Rocca

The character of Badia Sant’Agata

Fontana della Ninfa Zizza, public water in the town

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

Militello, the story of an enlightened fiefdom

A miniature city

The senses tell the Benedictine Monastery and San NicoIò l’Arena

The Maiolica of the staircase

The role of the religious orders in rebuilding the Val di Noto

One city, three sites

The city of museums

From the contrast of the exterior to the internal jubilation of colours

The two churches

The Feast of San Giacomo (St. James)

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

Many owners, one palace

A long reconstruction

An eagle-shaped city

Limestone, the colour of harmony

Modica, a city with ancient origins

The Supernatural dimension of the chapel of the Santissimo Sacramento

Corbels: a celebration of the Nicolaci family

The senses tell the story of the church of Santa Maria del Carmelo

A Nobel Prize in Modica

Between white and black

A prominent church

The senses tell the story of the church of San Giovanni Battista

Some prestigious works

The senses tell the Mother Church of San Nicolò and of the Santissimo Salvatore

The kitchen, a treasure chest of colours

Feast days

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara