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.

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

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

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

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

The Palazzo dei due mori

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

The city palace

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

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

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

A unifying project for the city of Catania

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

The Benedictines’ library

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

The eagle-shaped city

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

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

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

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

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

The church and the monastery

City and nature

The Church of Madonna della Stella

The works in the church

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

The new roads of the city

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

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

Religious architecture

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

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

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

The two churches

A Nobel Prize in Modica

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

A stone garden

The interior and works of art

The articulated interior spaces

A heritage of votive works

The interior of the church: space and colour

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

The city within the city

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

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

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

The Franciscan convent

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

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

Art in the cathedral

The Church of St. Francis

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

The Church of St. Paul

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

The Church of St. Benedict

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

One city, three sites

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

The art of maiolica

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

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

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

Luminous sacred spaces

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

Reconstruction after the earthquake

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

St. Agatha and the candelore

The casket of austerity under the great dome

A story of rebirth

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

The Staircase of Angels

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

The church and the college

The palace, the town, the church

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

The expansion of space and changing reality

A casket of precious works

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

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

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

Altars, saints and sculptural works