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.

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

The Church of St. Francis

City and nature

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

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

A story of rebirth

The works in the church

The interior of the church: space and colour

Altars, saints and sculptural works

The Benedictines’ library

A unifying project for the city of Catania

Religious architecture

The Franciscan convent

The Palazzo dei due mori

The city within the city

A stone garden

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

The church and the monastery

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

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

A heritage of votive works

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

A casket of precious works

The church and the college

Luminous sacred spaces

The Church of St. Benedict

The art of maiolica

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

One city, three sites

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

The Staircase of Angels

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

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

The eagle-shaped city

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

The city palace

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

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

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

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

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

Art in the cathedral

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

The new roads of the city

The two churches

Reconstruction after the earthquake

St. Agatha and the candelore

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

The Church of St. Paul

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

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

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

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

The interior and works of art

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

The palace, the town, the church

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

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

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

The casket of austerity under the great dome

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

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

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

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

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

The articulated interior spaces

The expansion of space and changing reality

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

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

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

The Church of Madonna della Stella

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

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

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

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

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

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco