Scicli

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

To access the interior of the church you have to take a curved staircase and pass through a narrow space, the endonarthex (or inner narthex). Once past this tight entrance area, you are embraced by an expansive, bright and highly decorated oval space.

The walls of the church are marked by twelve fluted half columns with Corinthian capitals between which paintings and plant decorations are inserted.
The capitals support a trabeation that follows the curved lines of the interior and stands out, with its deep blue and golden details, from the whiteness of the wall.
Near each column, above the trabeation and between the windows, are sculptures of angels.
The tension of the space and its expansion can also be felt in these details.
From the shutter of the large dome that towers above the church, six large stained glass windows open that introduce infinite shades into the sacred space.

The vault, executed by Giovanni Gianforma in 1776, is abundantly decorated with stuccoes that feature geometric shapes in shades of blue and gold, while large transversal bands branch out from the fresco in the centre.

The church ends with an apse that is more elongated than the oval plan. Behind it is a majestic aedicula where the statue of the saint is kept.
This space is richly decorated with stucco and geometric designs in blue and gold, and is illuminated by the two smaller openings on the vault, which is also decorated.

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

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The casket of austerity under the great dome

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

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The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

Reconstruction after the earthquake

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

The expansion of space and changing reality

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

Luminous sacred spaces

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

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

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

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

The Palazzo dei due mori

The Church of Madonna della Stella

The city palace

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

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

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

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

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

The church and the monastery

The city within the city

The interior and works of art

A heritage of votive works

The two churches

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

Altars, saints and sculptural works

The Church of St. Benedict

The Church of St. Francis

A unifying project for the city of Catania

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

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

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

A story of rebirth

A casket of precious works

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

The Benedictines’ library

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

The Staircase of Angels

The articulated interior spaces

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

Art in the cathedral

The works in the church

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

Religious architecture

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

The art of maiolica

St. Agatha and the candelore

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

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

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

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

The eagle-shaped city

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

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

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

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

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

One city, three sites

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

The interior of the church: space and colour

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

The palace, the town, the church

The church and the college

The Franciscan convent

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

The Church of St. Paul

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The new roads of the city

A stone garden

City and nature