Being in Sicily and not seeing the "Sicilian baroque" is like visiting an excellent pastry shop and not buying dessert. The question arises, why did you have to open the door at all?
Such a dessert for architectural and contemplative tourism is the valley of Val di Noto, a historical area of southeast Sicily near the Iblei Mountains
Catastrophic destruction of towns and villages of this region in 1693, during earthquake, provoked the active development of the Val di Noto region and the emergence of a unique architectural style that was later called the "Sicilian baroque."
All eight cities in Val di Noto are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. These are Caltagirone, Militello, Catania, Modica, Noto, Palazzolo Acreide, Ragusa and Scilla. The name of the valley is formed from the city of Noto - the center of the region, in which the brightest and integral architectural complex is represented
The typical features of the "Sicilian baroque" of Val di Noto are both typical Baroque curved shapes and the special splendor of using all sorts of smiling masks and putti, forged balconies of pretentious shapes, complex external staircases, convex and concave facades, as well as the dark color of the volcanic stone from which the buildings were built.
Each of the cities of Val di Noto carries the unique charm of this style, whether it is the luxurious cathedral of San Nicolò di Mira in Noto, the San Sebastiano church in Palazzolo Acrede, the narrow streets of Lower Modica or the modest Scilly, which tourists rarely come to.
Val di Noto (ital.)
Architects of the Renaissance dreamed of an ideal city, the layout of which would combine rationalism and the beauty of the external form. In practice, all efforts were limited to re-planning of individual streets, such as Strada Nuovo in Genoa. And only the cities of Val di Noto became such ideal Renaissance patterns, in which the streets intersected exclusively in the right-hand corner, and began from squares, and churches, palaces and palazzo created holistic panoramas.
