Militello in Val di Catania

A new site for a new church

The chiesa madre di San Nicolò e del Santissimo Salvatore (Mother Church of St. Nicholas and the Holy Saviour) is located on the corner of Via Umberto I and Via Matrice.
It is the result of a long and complex reconstruction following the earthquake of 1693.
Three years after the earthquake the Bishop of Syracuse, on a visit to Militello, ordered the construction of the new church and it was here that problems began. The citizens were divided between those who wanted to rebuild the church in the same place and those who wanted to rebuild it on a safer site; it took 28 years before a definitive location was found.
The foundation stone was laid on 6 December 1721 at the new site, where the present church is located today.
At this point, the reconstruction work was fairly quick: on 20 March 1740, when the church was blessed, the central and lateral naves were almost complete; around 1750, the façade designed by the architect Girolamo Palazzotto was finished; in 1765, the bell tower designed by the architect Francesco Battaglia , from Catania was added, which was joined by the bells and clock eleven years later.
The bell tower on the right was the only one built, thus breaking up the symmetry of the façade. The church was built with the help of many benefactors including the Marquis Nicolò Placido Branciforte and the Abbot Malacria.

The church of San Nicolò and the Most Holy Saviour
The church of San Nicolò and the Most Holy Saviour has an elevated entrance with respect to the road level and can be reached through two side staircases that have twenty-seven steps. The facade is divided horizontally into three levels: the first includes the large central portal, inserted between two pairs of columns and which is closed over by a broken arched tympanum; the two side doors, called “of the sun” and “of the moon”, are surmounted by a window; the second order has in the center a large window with a triangular tympanum on top; the third order, finally, closes the structure, has the shape of a broken arched tympanum and on the top there is a cross supported by a head of cherub. On the right side of the facade is the only bell tower, the left one was not built and the symmetry of the facade is broken.
The senses tell about Palazzo Nicolaci

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

An eagle-shaped city

The internal colours

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

A new entrance for Santa Chiara (St. Claire)

The Maiolica of the staircase

The disastrous earthquake

Palazzo Nicolaci di Villadorata, who is the architect?

The Burgos crucifix

Two illustrious patron saints

The city of museums

The character of Badia Sant’Agata

Prominent façade

A majestic and luminous church

Militello, the story of an enlightened fiefdom

Discovering the mother church

The Feast of San Giacomo (St. James)

The chocolate of Modica

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

One city, two sites

Many owners, one palace

Norman apses

The Baroque town by the sea

One city, three sites

From International Gothic to present day

A colourful floor

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

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

A long reconstruction

The façade used as a puppet theatre

Rosario Gagliardi, the maestro of the Val di Noto

Wonderful quick decorations

Fontana della Ninfa Zizza, public water in the town

Corbels: a celebration of the Nicolaci family

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

Baroque and the loss of equilibrium in the 16th century

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

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The senses tell the story of the Church of the Annunciation

Some masterpieces

The Benedictine Monastery, one of the largest in Europe

Some prestigious works

Places of knowledge: the Benedictines’ library

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

A new site for a new church

Searching for colour

A triumph of colour

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

New roads for Catania

Feast days

A talking palace

A square as the heart of the city

A miniature city

The wall comes to life

The kitchen, a treasure chest of colours

A small room with a golden entrance

The Supernatural dimension of the chapel of the Santissimo Sacramento

The theatre of taste

Modica, a city with ancient origins

The Infiorata, a feast of colours and flowers

A city in colour

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

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

The interior and its masterpieces

A prominent church

Limestone, the colour of harmony

The senses tell about Palazzo Napolino Tommasi Rosso

Feasting in Palazzolo

San Benedetto: a treasure reopened to the public

A half-Baroque church

Connections with other UNESCO sites

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Sebastiano

Between white and black

St. Agatha and the giant candelabras

A feast only for Scicli

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

A design by Vincenzo Sinatra

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

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

St. Sebastian, so much work!

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

A hall for the feasts

The cathedral of Sant’Agata: a lengthy reconstruction

A symbol for the town

The Barresi-Branciforte lords

From St. Thomas to St. Joseph

A new palace for the La Rocca lords

The church of Carmine

The senses tell the story of the church of San Giuseppe

The senses tell about Palazzo La Rocca

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

The colours of the cathedral

San Nicolò l’Arena: an unfinished church

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

The Staircase of Angels

A museum to save a tradition

A new site for a new city

The two churches