BAROQUE IN VAL DI NOTO

South-eastern Sicily had a stlyle-architettonic characterization unique in the world that make it the triumph of the lately european baroque.

On 2002 in Budapest, Unesco officially declared eight cities in the south-east of Sicily, World Heritages putting them in the World Heritage List. This cities are: Ragusa, Modica, Scicli, Palazzolo, Noto, Caltagirone, Militello in Val di Catania and Catania. This, as is declared by Unesco, "rapresent a considerable collective exploit", brought with success to an high architectural and artisit level. Saved inside the late Baroque, they describe special innovations in the urban design and in the house building.

The historic centres and urban environments of the towns proposed for inscription in the Unesco list, reveal a remarkable and unique exchange of human values accomplished in the collective effort to reconstruct the towns after the 1693 earthquake. The social classes of that period (clergy, aristocracy, and the new urban middle classes) together with the Spanish government, architects, and craftsmen, co-operated in the recreation of entire urban realities.

The historic centres and urban sites bear witness to cultural traditions that have disappeared elsewhere: eg the design abilities and the innovative approach typical of the post-1693 era, in which major and minor art forms intertwine into a peculiar unity, and the exceptional skills of workmen in using local stone.

This area has a great importance for the high concentration of monumental late Baroque buildings of outstanding architectural and decorative value: eg the plans and layouts of religious buildings and facades with bell-towers. Facades as urban monuments peak with San Domenico in Noto, San Giorgio in Ragusa Ibla, and San Giorgio in Modica.

This cities of the "Val di Noto" area represent the top and the final bloom of the Baroque's art in Europe.

A journey inside the baroque in Val di Noto, is also a cultural and artistic trip crossing the Borboni's Two Sicilies kingdom history. Come in Sicily is like to make a jump in the past in ancient atmospheres testimony of the riches and the beauty of the 18th century.

Wonderful Sicily organize in all the year for its members guided excursions in the most beautiful Baroque site in this area.

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