Caltagirone

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

The city, hit by the earthquake, was rebuilt in the same place, maintaining the previous urban plan and inserting beautiful new buildings in Baroque style.
The city of Caltagirone became an example of urban planning for the other cities affected by the earthquake of 1693. In particular, its plan was adopted in the reconstruction of Catania by the Duke of Camastra. The new buildings within the modern urban layout include the Monte delle Prestanze or Monte di Pietà in the square bordered by the Senatorial Palace, and opposite the church of San Giuliano (St. Julian).
monte prestanze prospetto frontale
dettaglio colonne ingressoBuilt at the start of the 18th century by architect Natale Bonaiuto, the building has a square plan. Its uniqueness manifests in the elevation.
In fact, it has a series of giant half columns on tall plinths, i.e. extending from the ground up to the upper floor, arranged in a tight pattern.
The absence of corbels and the thicker columns near the entrance are newer elements than the local tradition.
It was a symbol of great modernity and a very representative style for a building used as a civic bank.

A heritage of votive works

The interior of the church: space and colour

The Franciscan convent

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

Reconstruction after the earthquake

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

The city within the city

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

The church and the monastery

The Benedictines’ library

A unifying project for the city of Catania

City and nature

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

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

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

The interior and works of art

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

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

The casket of austerity under the great dome

The palace, the town, the church

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

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

Religious architecture

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

The two churches

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

The Palazzo dei due mori

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

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

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

A story of rebirth

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

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

The Church of Madonna della Stella

Altars, saints and sculptural works

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

The works in the church

A stone garden

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

Luminous sacred spaces

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

The eagle-shaped city

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

Art in the cathedral

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

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

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

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

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

The Church of St. Benedict

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

The Staircase of Angels

The Church of St. Francis

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

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

The city palace

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

The church and the college

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

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

St. Agatha and the candelore

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

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

One city, three sites

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

A Nobel Prize in Modica

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

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

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

The art of maiolica

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

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

The Church of St. Paul

The expansion of space and changing reality

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

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

The articulated interior spaces

A casket of precious works

The new roads of the city