Catania

Wonderful quick decorations

A strike of colour leaves you breathless as you enter the church of San Benedetto (St. Benedict) on Via dei Crociferi.
The paintings that decorate the interior have a timeless beauty.
The painter Giovanni Tuccari was commissioned to fresco the church. He completed the entire painting series in just three years (1726-1729). At the centre of the vault is the triumph of St. Benedict accompanied by his sister, St. Scholastica, and Pope Gregory I. At the sides, Tuccari completed the work and painted some scenes from the saint’s life: him welcoming St. Maurus and St. Placidus, two Benedictine saints, and on another, Totila, king of the Ostrogoths, a barbarian population, kneels before him.
To complete the decoration, there is a series of female figures above the windows, the allegories of virtues : the first is prudence, a woman depicted near a marble column, a symbol of fortress; followed by temperance, faith, hope and splendid charity, a woman nursing her own baby and two others.
The depictions are full of figures, so the spectator becomes part of the scene, overwhelmed by the events. This effect and ability to involve the observer is all down to the artist. Using a play on light and shadow, Giovanni Tuccari : bestows movement and vitality upon the scenes. At the same time this painting technique allowed him to work extremely quickly; he completed the work in just three years.

A new site for a new church

Some masterpieces

Wonderful quick decorations

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

San Nicolò l’Arena: an unfinished church

A small room with a golden entrance

A prominent church

Fontana della Ninfa Zizza, public water in the town

Two illustrious patron saints

The Maiolica of the staircase

Connections with other UNESCO sites

A talking palace

Between white and black

A hall for the feasts

Feast days

The internal colours

Some prestigious works

An eagle-shaped city

A majestic and luminous church

The wall comes to life

Corbels: a celebration of the Nicolaci family

St. Sebastian, so much work!

A new palace for the La Rocca lords

Feasting in Palazzolo

The theatre of taste

The city of museums

The kitchen, a treasure chest of colours

From St. Thomas to St. Joseph

The character of Badia Sant’Agata

Prominent façade

A city in colour

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

The chocolate of Modica

From International Gothic to present day

The Supernatural dimension of the chapel of the Santissimo Sacramento

The cathedral of Sant’Agata: a lengthy reconstruction

The two churches

The senses tell about Palazzo La Rocca

Many owners, one palace

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

A miniature city

A new entrance for Santa Chiara (St. Claire)

The senses tell about Palazzo Nicolaci

The Feast of San Giacomo (St. James)

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

The Barresi-Branciforte lords

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

A square as the heart of the city

Limestone, the colour of harmony

The Staircase of Angels

A feast only for Scicli

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

The interior and its masterpieces

A half-Baroque church

Palazzo Nicolaci di Villadorata, who is the architect?

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Sebastiano

The church of Carmine

The façade used as a puppet theatre

A triumph of colour

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

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

One city, two sites

Searching for colour

A design by Vincenzo Sinatra

The senses tell about Palazzo Napolino Tommasi Rosso

The colours of the cathedral

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

Militello, the story of an enlightened fiefdom

The Benedictine Monastery, one of the largest in Europe

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

A colourful floor

Rosario Gagliardi, the maestro of the Val di Noto

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

A long reconstruction

The disastrous earthquake

New roads for Catania

The senses tell the story of the Church of the Annunciation

One city, three sites

San Benedetto: a treasure reopened to the public

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

Discovering the mother church

A new site for a new city

Modica, a city with ancient origins

St. Agatha and the giant candelabras

Baroque and the loss of equilibrium in the 16th century

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

The Burgos crucifix

Places of knowledge: the Benedictines’ library

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

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

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

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

The senses tell the story of the church of San Giuseppe

The Baroque town by the sea

A museum to save a tradition

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The Infiorata, a feast of colours and flowers

A symbol for the town

Norman apses