Val Di Noto: journey through the UNESCO heritage baroque city

Looking for a route in Noto Valley in Sicily to discover the beauty of the Sicilian land? From Catania to Ragusa, Noto Modica, from Scicli to Palazzolo. Here's one full of tips and detailed with practical information on the Val di Noto, from the 2002 part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Late Baroque Route between cities Val di Noto

1. Ragusa
2. Modica
3. Scicli
4. Known
5. Palazzolo Acreide
6. Caltagirone and Militello in Val di Catania
7. Catania

Ragusa

Matches from Ragusa, with its 2 historical centres: a medieval, restored after the earthquake and the other built from scratch in the late seventeenth century. You can admire the Barocco Ragusa in the nine churches in the city and in the most beautiful palaces of the center.

He finds himself with his chin upward, even smaller, the imposing majesty of the Christian church.
Lot of, scorgendone palms and monuments, The course will recognize as one of the places of excellence of Montalbano's fiction.

The film series that converts the pages of Andrea Camilleri turns yellow and mysteries in color and smiles, natural magic of a fascinating place.
Other monuments of Ragusa Ibla worth visiting are the Church of St. Joseph and St. George's Portal.

Modica

The Baroque town of Modica, a few kilometers from Ragusa, It was built on a rock, summità situated on a hill Monte Ibei. Over the decades the population is pushed further downstream, recreating there the community center. They call her, rightly, natural crib. Small huts is affrastagliano one above the other, delicious fairy lights overlook the cool of the day, churches and monuments suddenly s'aprono at every turn.

Well worth seeing the Church of San Gregorio, built in the eighteenth century, It seems too much to S Church. Trinita dei Monti. Many call it the finest example of Baroque ibleo. then there, always in the historic center, St. Peter's Church.

Modica is also the city of chocolate: an annual festival is dedicated to this delicacy (ChocoModica), the processing of which here follows ancient and secret South American recipes.

Scicli

Here Baroque is predominant. Palazzo Beneventano, with its decorations and masks, refined and balustrades decorated with fantastic animals, but also Palazzo Fava and Palazzo Spadaro.

The Baroque Here it is everywhere, especially on religious buildings, as the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista, the Church of San Michele Arcangelo it is to Church of Santa Teresa.

The heart of the town is Piazza Italy, overlooked by many eighteenth century buildings.
The mother church It is dedicated to Our Lady of the Militia. For Easter, the statue is carried in procession. And 'one of the rare examples of armed madonna, well represented in a few iconography.
Inside the church it is possible to admire the Madonna of the Militia, papier-mâché work that represents the fight against the Saracens. In the same square also it rises the Church of San Bartolomeo, dating from the fifteenth century, which was the only one to withstand the earthquake of 1693.

Known

Known, as a true European Capital of Baroque, represents the heart and exquisite baroque: palaces, churches, monasteries, squares, fontane, They open in succession as a theater that leaves you breathless. definitely, the most beautiful kilometer of art in Europe.

The soft white stone has been worked, playing, to obtain harmonious forms, Now masks playful, Now careful studies of convexity bright.
It is not the case, the Garden of Stone, summed up in a single expression: Baroque Noto.

Palazzo Acreide

As a small Greek subsidiary aretusea, Palazzolo was born as a defensive outpost of Syracuse. It was the Akrai settlement, deleted by time but not by history.
From the mountains of Palazzolo, along the lower valley of the mountains iblei, The prominent position made it a unique observation point to defend the city.
The city of Palazzolo had, therefore, small, what had Syracuse. There we find a greek theater, the bouleuterion, the shrines, le latomie. Rebuilt, as it is known, after the earthquake, further downstream, becomes a baroque flower, whose art is visible today in churches of San Paolo, San Sebastian, SS. Annunziata.
The local nobility would also give a tone: It was born elegant architecture, like those of Caruso and palaces Judica. Palazzolo Acreide hosts an interesting regional museum dedicated to ethno-anthropological Antonino Uccello.
The exhibition aea retains several witnesses of the Sicilian rural life.

Caltagirone and Militello in Val di Catania

Caltagirone drew from 'tragic earthquake of 1693, that razed, the strength to rise again. From the city of which he was artistic tradition, He made of beautiful keystone of reconstruction.

The rich architecture and the beauty of its facades are evident in churches such as Santa Maria del Monte, from the beautiful staircase decorated with features majolica, to San Giacomo Apostolo and palaces as the Court Capitanale and the Civic Museum. The Church of S. Pietro It presents a rich bronze portal, The Gothic facade is marked by two tall bell towers decorated tiled. The Church of St. Francis of Paola, Instead it houses valuable paintings by Vaccaro.

Militello in Val di Catania it is considered, rightly, a city-museum.
It was rebuilt in Baroque style after the earthquake of 1693 and proclaimed by 'Unesco World Heritage, Militello summarizes in itself history, culture and tradition.
The rural culture here is that of the north-eastern slopes of the Monti Iblei.
We are technically in the Catania administrative, in fact it is the side that looks to the Ragusa area with many cultural affinities.
Militello is not a place hit and run, it takes at least one overnight stay in order to devote serenely to visit some of his 24 churches and admire its palaces.
Moreover, the local cuisine, tasty and sincere, suffers strong influence of product seasonality.

Catania

Catania, city ​​of ancient origins, It was destroyed in the seventeenth century by a violent eruption, that in 1669 which destroyed half the city even skirting the coast, and the earthquake 1693, But events that allowed the reconstruction according to the late baroque era canons.
Drawing from local stone and mines lava, the monuments were built according to an alternation of black and white.
The Piazza Duomo, overlooking the traditional and colorful fish market, It reveals the symbol at the center of the city, "The Liotru", an elephant crowned by an obelisk. In front of Seminary and the Town Hall, just beyond Crociferi, theoretical succession of churches and convents made by great architects in '700, running parallel to the street Etnea, the city promenade topped by the profile of the volcano Etna.