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.

The expansion of space and changing reality

The Benedictines’ library

The church and the monastery

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

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

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

A stone garden

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

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

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

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

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

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

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

Luminous sacred spaces

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

Art in the cathedral

The palace, the town, the church

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

The Palazzo dei due mori

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

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

The new roads of the city

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

A heritage of votive works

A story of rebirth

The casket of austerity under the great dome

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

The Church of St. Paul

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

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

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

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

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

The Church of Madonna della Stella

City and nature

The Church of St. Francis

The interior of the church: space and colour

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

The church and the college

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

A unifying project for the city of Catania

The works in the church

A Nobel Prize in Modica

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

The articulated interior spaces

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

The art of maiolica

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

The city within the city

The eagle-shaped city

The Staircase of Angels

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

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

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

The interior and works of art

Altars, saints and sculptural works

The two churches

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

The city palace

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

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

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

The Franciscan convent

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

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

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

Reconstruction after the earthquake

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

St. Agatha and the candelore

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

One city, three sites

The Church of St. Benedict

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

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

A casket of precious works

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

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

Religious architecture

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

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