Catania

The new roads of the city

The reconstruction and reorganisation of the streets of Catania was based on some rules including the standard width of around 16, 12 or 8 metres, depending on whether they were main or secondary roads, and a geometric model set on a grid that was not rigidly orthogonal ), but conducted by four main road axes.
These axes were Via Etnea, Via San Giuliano, Via Vittorio Emanuele and Via Giuseppe Garibaldi.
Via Etnea was designed to create a long, straight road starting from Piazza Duomo and crossing with Via San Giuliano. To date, it still connects the Montevergine district to the sea, intersecting with it to form the scenic crossroads of the “ Quattro Canti ” square.
San Giuliano
The other two road axes built, Via Vittorio Emanuele and Via Giuseppe Garibaldi, today link Piazza Duomo, the heart of the city, to the old city.
via Vittorio Emanuele via Garibaldi piazza Duomo
Another fundamental axis, though smaller in size, is Via dei Crociferi, a road just over one hundred metres long where Catania’s most representative Baroque examples of churches and convents were built. Work to reorganise the roads was led by labourers from Calabria and around Etna, who were experts in the removal of lava stone blocks.
The new road layout brought great advantages to the city of Catania, not only for the beauty of the new architecture, but also because it facilitated connections and allowed for large, scenic and dynamic spaces to be created where citizens could find safe refuge in the event of an earthquake.

Rebirth and urban planning of the city of Noto

The articulated interior spaces

The senses tell the Church of San Michele

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

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

The triumph of Baroque: expansion of spaces

The Staircase of Angels

A stone garden

The senses tell about Palazzo Ducezio

Unusual iconographies: the Burgos crucifix

A casket of precious works

The church and the college

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

The senses tell of Palazzo della Cancelleria

Palazzo Trigona: a building with a complex shape

The Church of St. Benedict

Scenography, lights and colours of the cathedral

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

Palazzo Zacco, a balance between sobriety and decoration

The Church of St. Mary of the Mountain

The dynamics of the Church of San Michele

Palazzo Trigona di Canicarao

Scenography and devotion for St. Agatha

Palazzo della Cancelleria: from former stable to the Nicastro family

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

Expanded spaces, stucco and colourful lights

Baroque creativity: recurring themes

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

Akrai and Syracuse: an unbreakable bond

The Palazzo dei due mori

The casket of austerity under the great dome

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Paolo

The senses tell about Palazzo Beneventano

Madonna of the Militia: a singular warrior virgin

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

The Infiorata of Noto, a modern tradition

The senses tell the Church of San Domenico

The beginning of an authentic Baroque conception

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

San Domenico and Gagliardi’s work

The Church of St. Julian on Via dei Crociferi

Luminous sacred spaces

The palace, the town, the church

One city, three sites

The Monastery of the Benedictine nuns

The Franciscan convent

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

The Church of St. Paul

The church and the monastery

The eagle-shaped city

The two churches

Religious architecture

Militello: The story of an enlightened fiefdom

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

The Benedictines’ library

A unifying project for the city of Catania

The illusion of light and the decorative splendour

From the end of the world to rebirth from the rubble

The city within the city

The Madonna dei Conadomini and the art of devotion

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

The senses tell about Palazzo Zacco

City and nature

Reconstruction after the earthquake

A heritage of votive works

Virtuosity, decorations and altars

The interior and works of art

Altars, saints and sculptural works

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

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

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

Majestic exteriors, grandiose interiors

Fountain of the Nymph Zizza: public water in the town

A story of rebirth

The interior of the church: space and colour

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

The works in the church

The senses tell of the Cathedral of San Pietro

The art of maiolica

Art in the cathedral

The expansion of space and changing reality

The new roads of the city

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

The interiors: diffused light and Byzantine relics

Scicli, the city of Baroque scenery

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

Expansion, spatiality and light in the church of San Domenico

The smallest Greek theatre in the world

The city palace

The city of Modica, a balance between nature and urbanism

The Monte delle Prestanze in the new city layout

St. Agatha and the candelore

The Antonino Uccello Birthplace Museum

The Church of Madonna della Stella

A new site for the church of San Giorgio

The senses tell the Cathedral of San Giorgio

Baroque and the loss of balance in the 16th century

The senses tell about Palazzo Trigona

The Church of St. Francis

A compromise between Neoclassicism and Baroque

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

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

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

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