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.

A stone garden

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

The city within the city

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

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

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

St. Agatha and the candelore

Reconstruction after the earthquake

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

Religious architecture

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

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

The Church of St. Benedict

Altars, saints and sculptural works

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

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

The Church of St. Paul

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

The Palazzo dei due mori

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

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

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

One city, three sites

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

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

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

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

Art in the cathedral

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

The eagle-shaped city

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

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

The Church of Madonna della Stella

The casket of austerity under the great dome

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

The works in the church

The Benedictines’ library

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

Luminous sacred spaces

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

The church and the monastery

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

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

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

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

The articulated interior spaces

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

The expansion of space and changing reality

City and nature

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

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

The Franciscan convent

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

The Staircase of Angels

A unifying project for the city of Catania

The city palace

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

A story of rebirth

The Church of St. Francis

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

The interior of the church: space and colour

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

The church and the college

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

The two churches

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

The new roads of the city

The palace, the town, the church

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

The interior and works of art

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

A heritage of votive works

A casket of precious works

The art of maiolica