Sicilian Baroque: Catania, Syracuse and Noto after 1693

Sicilian Baroque has an exact birth date: 11 January 1693, when an earthquake wrecked the south-east of the island and the towns were raised anew in one late Baroque language. The route runs from Catania, where the stone is black, through Syracuse, where the Baroque wears a façade on a Greek temple, to Noto, a town that was relocated and built to a plan.

The year after which the island looked different

The first shock, of magnitude about 6.2, came on 9 January, and the main one, of magnitude about 7.4, two days later. At least seventy towns and cities were hit, among them Catania, Noto, Syracuse and Augusta, and waves five to ten metres high swept the Ionian coast. Tens of thousands of people died.

What followed gave the south-east of the island a distinctive look. The Spanish crown gave the nobleman Giuseppe Lanza the authority to redesign the ruined towns, and in 2002 UNESCO inscribed eight of them as the “Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto (South-Eastern Sicily)”: among them Catania, Noto, Modica and Ragusa. The route follows three of the towns: in Catania and Syracuse the Baroque stands among older layers, and Noto was moved.

Catania, black with lava

Catania is the first stop and the darkest. The eruption of Etna in 1669 and the earthquake of 1693 nearly destroyed it, so it was rebuilt from black lava stone, which the volcano supplied itself, and white limestone, which breaks the black surface with pale accents. On Piazza del Duomo stand the cathedral of St Agatha, the city's patron, and the Elephant Fountain: a lava elephant with an Egyptian obelisk on its back, assembled in 1736 by Giovanni Battista Vaccarini. The same architect raised the cathedral façade after 1693. Entry is free, and the cathedral is open 8–12 and 15–18 (outside mass times).

Behind the cathedral falls the fish market of La Pescheria, open mornings, weekdays (quietest on Monday); closed: Sunday. From there Via Etnea runs from the square straight towards the volcano, so Etna stands at the end of the street as the last, largest façade in the row.

3 daysCatania in order, with the Duomo, the market and Via Etnea:Catania in 3 days →

Day tripsSyracuse, Taormina and Etna, each with its own transport:Day trips from Catania →

Syracuse, Baroque on Greek columns

From Catania to Syracuse runs regional train (Trenitalia), about 1 h 5 min. On the island of Ortygia the Baroque grew out of antiquity, and this shows most clearly on the cathedral. Its façade was reshaped after the 1693 damage, between 1725 and 1753, by Andrea Palma: two rows of Corinthian columns with sculpture by Ignazio Marabitti. In the walls behind it stand the Doric columns of the Temple of Athena from the 6th century BC, visible outside and in.

More than twenty-five centuries lie stacked on one building here. Entry to the cathedral is €2, closed: Sunday (May–September). Ortygia has been on the UNESCO list since 2005, together with the necropolis of Pantalica, so the Baroque reads here as the last layer in a long sequence.

3 daysSyracuse in three days, with Ortygia and Neapolis:Syracuse in 3 days →

Noto, the town that was moved

To Noto runs Interbus coach, direct, the ride is about 1 h one way, and the return ticket is €5.90. The trip takes half a day. Here the earthquake moved the town. Medieval Noto was ruined, more than half its people died, and the new town was raised on the left bank of the River Asinaro, closer to the sea. Old Noto, Noto Antica, still stands eight kilometres to the north, on Mount Alveria.

The street grid of the new town was laid out by Giovanni Battista Landolina, and the slope of the hill was used as a stage: churches and palaces stack up the incline so that they are seen one above another. The stone is soft and takes on a honey tone in the sun, so the town glows most in the late afternoon. Rosario Gagliardi designed the churches of San Carlo al Corso and San Domenico, Vincenzo Sinatra the town hall, Palazzo Ducezio, and Paolo Labisi built the Palazzo di Villadorata in 1733, on Via Nicolaci, with decorated balconies. Every year, since the 1980s, that street is laid with the Infiorata, a carpet of flower mosaics.

The cathedral of San Nicolò di Mira, conceived by Gagliardi, was built from the early 18th century to 1776. On 13 March 1996 a large part of it collapsed: the piers of the south nave, the whole roof and vault of the nave, and the dome. The town waited eleven years for the reopening, until 15 June 2007.

Day tripsNoto, Marzamemi and Pantalica from Syracuse:Day trips from Syracuse →