Catania

Altars, saints and sculptural works

dettaglio inquadrando candelabri

 

Inside the church the decorative display catches our eye, the only element of colour apart from the two-tone floor in the white sacred space.
The main altar, which occupies the majestic frontal apse , is dedicated to St. Agatha, flanked by two putti.
The statue, made of marble stucco, a painting technique that imitates marble, is portrayed in ecstasy, its eyes turned skywards.
The other four altars, created by Giovanni Battista Marino , are dedicated to the martyr St. Euplius, a fellow citizen of St. Agatha, St. Benedict, St. Joseph and the Child and the Immaculate Conception.

Altare minore Altare minore Altare minore Altare minore
The altars are flanked by some other works of the highest artistic, evocative and symbolic value. Among these is the wooden crucifix by Ignazio Carnazza completed in 1696.
The work rests on a yellow marble background from which a red marble decoration continues downwards, depicting a fabric cloth with fringes and bows.
This element, though made of hard, cold stone, has such a realistic appearance that it appears soft and animated in the eyes of the beholder.
The work was commissioned by the governing abbess Giuseppa Maria Scammacca. Below it is the nuns’ “grating of professions”, a work by the Bonaventura brothers.

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The two churches

A stone garden

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

The art of maiolica

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

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The articulated interior spaces

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

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

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

Religious architecture

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

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

The Church of St. Benedict

Art in the cathedral

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

The Church of St. Francis

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The casket of austerity under the great dome

The Staircase of Angels

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

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

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

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

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

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

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

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

Altars, saints and sculptural works

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

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Virtuosity, decorations and altars

City and nature

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

The palace, the town, the church

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

A heritage of votive works

The works in the church

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

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

St. Agatha and the candelore

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

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

The Benedictines’ library

The city within the city

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

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

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

The church and the college

Reconstruction after the earthquake

The Palazzo dei due mori

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

The church and the monastery

The Church of Madonna della Stella

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

The Church of St. Paul

A story of rebirth

The new roads of the city

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

Luminous sacred spaces

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

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

The city palace

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

The interior of the church: space and colour

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

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

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

A casket of precious works

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

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

The expansion of space and changing reality

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

The interior and works of art

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

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

The eagle-shaped city

The Franciscan convent

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