Introduction to Val di Noto

Religious architecture

For religious buildings, the architecture of the Baroque period sought to become a guiding principle for a journey of faith through the very form of the construction and its ornaments.
The façade features the characteristic elements of the sacred building and reveals its symbolic contents in its sculptural decorations, allegories of saints, votive scrolls and dedications, kept within the rigid geometric and compositional rules typical of the architecture of this period.
The sculptural and “moved” façades lead to an interior that is rich and exciting due to the triumph of colour, stuccoes and decorations that captivate worshippers, rousing wonder and amazement, right up to the crowning moment in the vault with the mystical sight of the triumph of the Saints.

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

The Staircase of Angels

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

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

The interior and works of art

A heritage of votive works

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

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

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The new roads of the city

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

A casket of precious works

The Franciscan convent

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

City and nature

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

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

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

The Church of St. Paul

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

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

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

The Palazzo dei due mori

The eagle-shaped city

The articulated interior spaces

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

Luminous sacred spaces

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

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

The city within the city

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

A unifying project for the city of Catania

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

A stone garden

The casket of austerity under the great dome

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

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

The expansion of space and changing reality

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

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

Art in the cathedral

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

The Church of St. Francis

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

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

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

One city, three sites

Religious architecture

The Church of St. Benedict

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

The two churches

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

The palace, the town, the church

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

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

The art of maiolica

The interior of the church: space and colour

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

The works in the church

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

The church and the college

The city palace

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

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

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

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

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

Altars, saints and sculptural works

The church and the monastery

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

Reconstruction after the earthquake

A story of rebirth

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

St. Agatha and the candelore

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

The Church of Madonna della Stella

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

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

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

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

The Benedictines’ library

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