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Sicilian Baroque

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Architecture

   Illustration 1: Sicilian Baroque. "Collegiata" in Catania, designed by
   Stefano Ittar, circa 1768
   Enlarge
   Illustration 1: Sicilian Baroque. "Collegiata" in Catania, designed by
   Stefano Ittar, circa 1768

   Sicilian Baroque is the distinctive form of Baroque architecture that
   took hold on the island of Sicily, off the southern coast of Italy, in
   the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The style is recognizable not
   only by its typical Baroque curves and flourishes, but also by its
   grinning masks and putti and a particular flamboyance that has given
   Sicily a unique architectural identity.

   The Sicilian Baroque style came to fruition during a major surge of
   rebuilding following a massive earthquake in 1693. Previously, the
   Baroque style had been used on the island in a naïve and parochial
   manner, having evolved from hybrid native architecture rather than
   being derived from the great Baroque architects of Rome. After the
   earthquake, local architects, many of them trained in Rome, were given
   plentiful opportunities to recreate the more sophisticated Baroque
   architecture that had become popular in mainland Italy; the work of
   these local architects — and the new genre of architectural engravings
   that they pioneered — inspired more local architects to follow their
   lead. Around 1730, Sicilian architects had developed a confidence in
   their use of the Baroque style. Their particular interpretation led to
   its evolving further into a personalised and highly localised art form
   on the island. From the 1780s onwards, the style was gradually replaced
   by the newly-fashionable neoclassicism.

   The highly decorative Sicilian Baroque period lasted barely fifty
   years, and perfectly reflected the social order of the island at a time
   when, nominally ruled by Spain, it was in fact governed by an
   extravagant and hedonistic aristocracy. Its Baroque architecture gives
   the island an architectural character that has lasted into the 21st
   century.

Characteristics of Sicilian Baroque

   Illustration 2:University of Catania, designed by Vaccarini and
   completed by 1752, exemplifies typical Sicilian Baroque, with putti
   supporting the balcony, wrought iron balustrades, decorated rustication
   and two-tone lava masonry.
   Enlarge
   Illustration 2: University of Catania, designed by Vaccarini and
   completed by 1752, exemplifies typical Sicilian Baroque, with putti
   supporting the balcony, wrought iron balustrades, decorated rustication
   and two-tone lava masonry.

   Baroque architecture is a European phenomenon originating in
   17th-century Italy; it is flamboyant and theatrical, and richly
   ornamented by sculpture and an effect known as chiaroscuro, the
   strategic use of light and shade on a building created by mass and
   shadow.

   The Baroque style in Sicily was largely confined to buildings erected
   by the church, and palazzi built as private residences for the Sicilian
   aristocracy. The earliest examples of this style in Sicily lacked
   individuality and were typically heavy-handed pastiches of buildings
   seen by Sicilian visitors to Rome, Florence, and Naples. However, even
   at this early stage, provincial architects had begun to incorporate
   certain vernacular features of Sicily's older architecture. By the
   middle of the 18th century, when Sicily's Baroque architecture was
   noticeably different from that of the mainland, it typically included
   at least two or three of the following features, coupled with a unique
   freedom of design that is more difficult to characterise in words.

   1: Grotesque masks and putti, often supporting balconies or decorating
   various bands of the entablature of a building; these grinning or
   glaring faces are a relic of Sicilian architecture from before the
   mid-17th century (Illustrations 2 and 9).

   2: Balconies, often complemented by intricate wrought iron balustrades
   after 1633 (Illustrations 2 & 9), and by plainer balustrades before
   that date (Illustration 6).

   3: External staircases. Most villas and palazzi were designed for
   formal entrance by a carriage through an archway in the street façade,
   leading to a courtyard within. An intricate double staircase would lead
   from the courtyard to the piano nobile. This would be the palazzo's
   principal entrance to the first-floor reception rooms; the symmetrical
   flights of steps would turn inwards and outwards as many as four times.
   Owing to the topography of their elevated sites it was often necessary
   to approach churches by many steps; these steps were often transformed
   into long straight marble staircases, in themselves decorative
   architectural features (illustration 19), in the manner of the Spanish
   Steps in Rome.

   4: Canted, concave, or convex façades (Illustrations 1 and 6).
   Occasionally in a villa or palazzo, an external staircase would be
   fitted into the recess created by the curve.
   Illustration 3: A Sicilian belfry crowns Rosario Gagliardi's Church of
   San Giuseppe in Ragusa Ibla
   Enlarge
   Illustration 3: A Sicilian belfry crowns Rosario Gagliardi's Church of
   San Giuseppe in Ragusa Ibla

   5: The Sicilian belfry. Belfrys were not placed beside the church in a
   campanile tower as is common in Italy, but on the façade itself, often
   surmounting the central pediment, with one or more bells clearly
   displayed beneath its own arch, such as at Catania's Collegiata
   (Illustration 1). In a large church with many bells this usually
   resulted in an intricately sculpted and decorated arcade at the highest
   point of the principal façade (Illustration 3). These belfries are
   among the most enduring and characteristic features of Sicilian Baroque
   architecture.

   6: Inlaid coloured marble set into both floor and walls especially in
   church interiors. This particular form of Intarsia developed in Sicily
   from the 17th century (see the floor of illustration 14).

   7: Columns that are often deployed singularly, supporting plain arches
   and thus displaying the influence of the earlier and much plainer
   Norman period (Illustration 3). Columns are rarely encountered, as
   elsewhere in Europe, in clustered groups acting as piers, especially in
   examples of early Sicilian Baroque.

   8: Decorated rustication. Sebastiano Serlio had decorated the blocks of
   ashlar in his rustication; by the end of the 16th century, Sicilian
   architects were ornamenting the blocks with carvings of leaves,
   fish-scales, and even sweets and shells; shells were later to become
   among the most prevalent ornamental symbols of Baroque design.
   Sometimes the rustication would be used for pillars rather than walls,
   a reversal of expectations and almost an architectural joke
   (illustration 2).
   Illustration 4: The Cathedral of San Giovanni Battista, Ragusa,
   (1694–1735), an example of early Sicilian Baroque.
   Enlarge
   Illustration 4: The Cathedral of San Giovanni Battista, Ragusa,
   (1694–1735), an example of early Sicilian Baroque.

   9: The local volcanic lava stone that was used in the construction of
   many Sicilian Baroque buildings, because this was the most readily
   available. Shades of black or grey were used to create contrasting
   decorative effects, accentuating the Baroque love of light and shade as
   demonsratted in (illustration 2).

   10: The Spanish influence. The architectural influence of the ruling
   Spanish (Illustration 13), although this was a milder influence than
   that of the Normans. The Spanish style, a more restrained version of
   French renaissance architecture, is particularly evident in eastern
   Sicily, where — owing to minor insurrections — the Spanish maintained a
   stronger military presence. Messina's monumental Porta Grazia, erected
   in 1680 as the entrance to a Spanish citadel, would not be out of place
   in any of the towns and citadels built by the Spanish in their colonies
   elsewhere. The style of this arched city gate, with its ornate
   mouldings and scrolls, was widely copied all over Catania immediately
   following the quake.

   While these characteristics never occur all together in the same
   building, and none are unique to Sicilian Baroque it is the coupling
   together which gives the Sicilian Baroque its distinctive air. Other
   Baroque characteristics, such as broken pediments over windows, the
   extravagant use of statuary and curved topped windows and doors are all
   emblematic of baroque architecture, but can all be found on Baroque
   building all over Europe.

Early Sicilian Baroque

   Illustration 5: Piazza Pretoria, Palermo. The fountain (circa 1554) by
   Francesco Camilliani is the only example of high Renaissance art in the
   capital city. Dominating the piece is the Church of Santa Caterina
   (circa 1556), with its spectacular later Baroque dome.
   Enlarge
   Illustration 5: Piazza Pretoria, Palermo. The fountain (circa 1554) by
   Francesco Camilliani is the only example of high Renaissance art in the
   capital city. Dominating the piece is the Church of Santa Caterina
   (circa 1556), with its spectacular later Baroque dome.

   Volcanic Sicily in the central Mediterranean, off the Italian
   peninsula, has been colonised by the Greeks, oppressed under the
   Romans, governed by Byzantines, conquered by barbarians, was then a
   Moslem emirate, a Norman duchy, a Hohenstaufen kingdom, ruled by
   Angevins, given to Spain and then to the Neapolitan Bourbons, before
   finally being absorbed into the Kingdom of Italy in 1860. Thus
   Sicilians have been exposed to a rich sequence of disparate cultures;
   this is reflected in the extraordinary diversity of architecture on the
   island.

   A form of decorated classical architecture peculiar to Sicily had begun
   to evolve from the 1530s. Inspired by the ruined Greek architecture and
   by the Norman cathedrals on the island, this often incorporated Greek
   architectural motifs such as the Greek key pattern into late Norman
   architecture with Gothic features such as pointed arches and window
   apertures. The Sicilian Norman architecture incorporated some Byzantine
   elements seldom found in Norman architecture elsewhere, and like other
   Romanesque architecture it went on to incorporate Gothic features. This
   early ornate architecture differs from that of mainland Europe in not
   having evolved from Renaissance architecture; instead, it was developed
   from Norman styles. Renaissance architecture hardly touched Sicily; in
   the capital city of Palermo, the only remnant of the High Renaissance
   is a water fountain, brought from Florence when it was already 20 years
   old (Illustration 5).

   Whatever the reason that Renaissance style never became popular in
   Sicily, it was certainly not ignorance. Antonello Gagini was midway
   through constructing the church of Santa Maria di Porto Salvo in 1536
   in the Renaissance style when he died; he was superseded by the
   architect Antonio Scaglione, who completed the building in a Norman
   style. This style seems to have influenced Sicilian architecture almost
   up to the time of the 1693 earthquake. Even Mannerism passed the island
   by. Only in the architecture of Messina could a Renaissance influence
   be discerned, partly for geographical reasons: within sight of mainland
   Italy, Messina was always more amenable to the prevailing tides of
   fashion there. The town's aristocratic patrons would often call on
   Florence or Rome to provide them with an architect; one example was the
   Florentine Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, who established the Tuscan
   styles of architecture and sculpture there in the mid-16th century.
   However, these influences remained largely confined to Messina and the
   surrounding district. It seems likely that it was always the patronage
   of the Roman Catholic church, removed from the influences of Roman
   fashion, that remained conservative in architectural taste.

   This is not to say that Sicily was completely isolated from trends
   elsewhere in Europe. Architecture in the island's major cities was
   strongly influenced by the family of the sculptor Domenico Gagini, who
   arrived from Florence in 1463. This family of sculptors and painters
   decorated churches and buildings with ornate decorative and figurative
   sculpture. Less than a century after his family had begun to cautiously
   decorate the island's churches (1531–37), Antonio Gagini completed the
   proscenium-like arch of the "Capella della Madonna" in the "Santuario
   dell'Annunziata" at Trapani. This pedimented arch to the sanctuary has
   pilasters — not fluted, but decorated heavily with relief busts of the
   saints; and, most importantly in terms of architecture, the pediment is
   adorned by reclining saints supporting swags linked to the central
   shield that crowns the pediment. This ornate pediment, although still
   unbroken, was one of the first signs that Sicily was forming its own
   style of decorative architecture. Similar in style is the Chiesa del
   Gesù (Illustration 14), constructed between 1564 and 1633, which also
   shows early signs of the Sicilian Baroque.
   Illustration 6: Early Sicilian Baroque: Quattro Canti, Palermo, (circa
   1610).
   Enlarge
   Illustration 6: Early Sicilian Baroque: Quattro Canti, Palermo, (circa
   1610).

   Thus a particular brand of Baroque architecture had begun to evolve in
   Sicily long before the earthquake of 1693. While the majority of those
   buildings that can be clearly classified as Baroque in style date from
   around 1650, the scarcity of these isolated, surviving examples of
   Sicily's 17th-century architectural history makes it hard to fully and
   accurately evaluate the architecture immediately before the natural
   disaster: the earthquake destroyed not only most of the buildings, but
   also most of their documentation. Yet more information has been lost in
   subsequent earthquakes and severe bombing during World War II.

   The earliest example of Baroque on the island is Giulio Lasso's Quattro
   Canti, an octagonal piazza, or circus, constructed around 1610 at the
   crossroads of the city's two principal streets. Around this
   intersection are four open sides, being the streets, and four matching
   buildings with identical canted corners. The sides of the four
   buildings are curved, further heightening the Baroque design of the
   buildings lining the circus. These four great buildings dominating the
   circus are each enhanced by a fountain, reminiscent of those of Pope
   Sixtus V's "Quattro Fontane" in Rome. However, here in Palermo the
   Baroque theme continues up three storeys of the buildings, which are
   adorned with statues in recessed niches depicting the four seasons, the
   four Spanish kings of Sicily, and the four patronesses of Palermo:
   Saints Cristina, Ninfa, Olivia, and Agata.

   While each façade of Quattro Canti is pleasing to the eye, as a scheme,
   it is both out of proportion with the limited size of the piazza and,
   like most other examples of early Sicilian Baroque, can be considered
   provincial, naive and heavy-handed, compared with later developments
   Whatever its merit, it is evident that during the 17th century, the
   Baroque style in the hands of the local architects and sculptors was
   already deviating from that of mainland Italy. This localised variation
   on the mainstream Baroque was not peculiar to Sicily, but occurred as
   far afield as Bavaria, and Russia, where Naryshkin Baroque would be
   just as eccentric as its Sicilian cousin.

Sicilian Baroque from 1693

Earthquake and patrons

   Illustration 7: Catania and the Palazzo Biscari, begun in 1702. Catania
   replaced Messina as Sicily's second city after the revolt of 1686.
   Enlarge
   Illustration 7: Catania and the Palazzo Biscari, begun in 1702. Catania
   replaced Messina as Sicily's second city after the revolt of 1686.

   The great Sicilian earthquake of 1693 severely damaged 54 cities and
   towns and 300 villages. The epicentre of the disaster was in Val di
   Noto, where the city of Noto was destroyed, while the city of Catania
   was very severely damaged. In total it is estimated over 100,000 people
   were killed. Other towns which suffered severely were Ragusa, Modica,
   Scicli, and Ispica. Rebuilding began almost immediately.

   The lavishness of the architecture that was to arise from this disaster
   is connected with the politics of Sicily at the time; Sicily was still
   officially under Spanish rule, but in truth the island was ruled by its
   native aristocracy. This was led by the Duke of Camastra, whom the
   Spanish had appointed viceroy to appease the aristocracy, who were
   numerous. It is estimated that there were more aristocrats per square
   metre than in any other state: in the 18th century, one estimate held
   that there were 228 noble families, who provided Sicily with a ruling
   class consisting of 58 princes, 27 dukes, 37 marquesses, 26 Counts, one
   viscount and 79 barons; the Golden Book of the Sicilian nobility (last
   published in 1926) lists even more. In addition to these were the
   younger scions of the families, with their courtesy titles of nobile or
   baron.

   Architecture was not the only legacy of the Normans. Rule over the
   peasants (there was no established middle class) was also enforced by a
   feudal system, unchanged since its introduction following the Norman
   conquest of 1071. Thus the Sicilian aristocracy had not only wealth but
   vast manpower at their command, something that had by this time
   declined in many other parts of Europe.

   The aristocracy shared their power only with the Roman Catholic Church.
   The Church ruled by fear of damnation in the next life and of the
   Inquisition in the present, and consequently both upper and lower
   classes gave as generously as they could on all major saints' days.
   Many priests and bishops were members of the aristocracy. The wealth of
   the Church in Sicily was further enhanced by the tradition of pressing
   younger children of the aristocracy to enter monasteries and convents,
   in order to preserve the family estates from division; a large fee, or
   dowry, was usually paid to the Church to facilitate this, in the form
   of property, jewels, or money. Thus the wealth of certain religious
   orders grew out of all proportion to the economic growth of any other
   group at this time. This is one of the reasons that so many of the
   Sicilian Baroque churches and monasteries, such as San Martino delle
   Scale, were rebuilt after 1693 on such a lavish scale.

   Once rebuilding began, the poor rebuilt their hovels in the same
   primitive fashion as before. By contrast, the wealthiest residents,
   both secular and spiritual, became caught in an almost manic orgy of
   building. Most members of the nobility had several homes in Sicily. For
   one thing, the Spanish viceroy spent six months of the year in Palermo
   and six in Catania, holding court in each city, and hence members of
   the aristocracy needed a town palazzo in each city. Once the palazzi in
   devastated Catania were rebuilt in the new fashion, the palazzi in
   Palermo seemed antiquated by comparison, so they too were eventually
   rebuilt. Following this, from the middle of the 18th century, villas to
   retire to in the autumn, essentially status symbols, were built at the
   fashionable enclave at Bagheria. This pattern was repeated, on a
   smaller scale, throughout the lesser cities of Sicily, each city
   providing a more entertaining social life and magnetic draw for the
   provincial aristocrat than their country estate. The country estate
   also did not escape the building mania. Often Baroque wings or new
   façades were added to ancient castles, or country villas were
   completely rebuilt. Thus the frenzy of building gained momentum until
   the increasingly fantastical Baroque architecture demanded by these
   hedonistic patrons reached its zenith in the mid-18th century.

New cities

   Illustration 8: Piazza del Duomo, Syracuse. Andrea Palma's Cathedral
   (Illustration below); the pillared cathedral is flanked by Baroque
   palazzi.
   Enlarge
   Illustration 8: Piazza del Duomo, Syracuse. Andrea Palma's Cathedral
   (Illustration below); the pillared cathedral is flanked by Baroque
   palazzi.

   Following the quake a program of rebuilding was rapidly put into
   action, but before it began in earnest some important decisions would
   permanently differentiate many Sicilian cities and towns from other
   European urban developments. The Viceroy, the Duke of Camastra, aware
   of new trends in town planning, decreed that rather than rebuilding in
   the medieval plan of cramped narrow streets, the new rebuilding would
   offer piazze and wider main streets, often on a rational grid system.
   The whole plan was often to take a geometric shape such as a perfect
   square or a hexagon, typical of Baroque town planning.

   This concept was still very new in the 1690s, and few new cities had
   reason to be built in Europe. The prototype may well have been the new
   city of Terra del Sole, constructed in 1564. Another of the first towns
   to be planned using symmetry and order rather than an evolution of
   small alleys and streets was Alessandria in southern Piedmont. A little
   later, from 1711, this Baroque form of planning was favoured in the
   Hispanic colonies of South America, especially by the Portuguese in
   Brazil. In other parts of Europe, local interests and opinions were too
   entrenched to permit radical replanning after disaster: in 1666, the
   City of London was all but destroyed by fire; the City itself was
   rebuilt on its ancient plan, though the new extensions to the west were
   partially on a grid system. In Sicily, public opinion (the public being
   anyone not a member of the ruling class) counted for nothing, and hence
   these seemingly revolutionary new concepts of town planning could be
   freely executed.

   In Sicily, the decision was taken not just for fashion and appearance
   but also because it would minimise the damage to property and life
   likely to be caused in future quakes. In 1693, the cramped housing and
   streets had caused buildings to collapse together like dominoes (a
   hazard that was to remain in the still cramped and narrow areas housing
   the poor). Architecturally and aesthetically, the big advantage of the
   new order of town planning was that unlike many Italian towns and
   cities, where one frequently encounters a monumental Renaissance church
   squeezed terrace fashion between incongruous neighbours, in urban
   Baroque design one can step back and actually see the architecture in a
   more conducive setting in relation to its proportions and perspective.
   This is most notable in the largely rebuilt towns of Caltagirone,
   Militello Val di Catania, Catania, Modica, Noto, Palazzolo, Ragusa, and
   Scicli.

   One of the finest examples of this new urban planning can be seen at
   Noto (Illustration 9), the town rebuilt approximately 10  km from its
   original site on Mount Alveria. The old ruined town now known as "Noto
   Antica" can still be viewed in its ruinous state. The new site chosen
   was flatter than the old to better facilitate a linear grid-like plan.
   The principal streets run east to west so they would benefit from a
   better light and a sunnier disposition. This example of town planning
   is directly attributable to a learned local aristocrat, Giovanni
   Battista Landolina; helped by three local architects, he is credited
   with planning the new city himself.
   Illustration 9: Via Nicolasi, Noto.
   Enlarge
   Illustration 9: Via Nicolasi, Noto.

   In these new towns, the aristocracy was allocated the higher areas,
   where the air was cooler and fresher and the views finest. The church
   was allocated the town centre (Illustration 8), for convenience to all,
   and to reflect the church's global and central position; round the
   pairing of cathedral and episcopal Palazzo Vescovile were built the
   convents. The merchants and storekeepers chose their lots on the
   planned wider streets leading from the main piazzas. Finally, the poor
   were allowed to erect their simple brick huts and houses in the areas
   nobody else wanted. Lawyers, doctors, and members of the few
   professions including the more skilled artisans - those who fell
   between the strictly defined upper and lower class - and were able to
   afford building plots, often lived on the periphery of the commercial
   and upper class residential sectors, but equally often these people
   just lived in a larger or grander house than their neighbours in the
   poorer areas. However, many of the skilled artists working on the
   rebuilding lived as part of the extended households of their patrons.
   In this way Baroque town planning came to symbolize and reflect
   political authority, and later its style and philosophy spread to such
   far away places as Annapolis and Savannah in English America, and
   perhaps most notably Haussmann's 19th century re-designing of Paris.
   The stage was now set for the explosion of Baroque architecture, which
   was to predominate in Sicily until the early 19th century.

   Later many other Sicilian towns and cities which had been either little
   damaged or completely untouched by the quake, such as Palermo, were
   also transformed by the Baroque style, as the fashion spread and
   aristocrats with a palazzo in Catania came to wish their palazzo in the
   capital to be as opulent as that in the second city. In Palermo the
   Church of Santa Caterina, began in 1566, was one of many in the city to
   be redecorated inside in the 18th century in the Baroque style, with
   coloured marbles.

New churches and palazzi

   Illustration 10: The Cathedral of San Giorgio, Modica.
   Enlarge
   Illustration 10: The Cathedral of San Giorgio, Modica.

   Of Sicily's own form of Baroque, post 1693, it has been said, "The
   buildings conceived in the wake of this disaster expressed a
   light-hearted freedom of decoration whose incongruous gaiety was
   intended, perhaps, to assuage the horror". While this is an accurate
   description of a style which is almost a celebration of joie de vivre
   in stone, it is unlikely to be the reason for the choice. As with all
   architectural styles, the selection of style would have directly linked
   to current fashion. Versailles had been completed in 1688 in the
   Baroque style; Louis XIV's new palace was immediately emulated across
   Europe by any aristocrat or sovereign in Europe aspiring to wealth,
   taste, or power. Thus it was the obvious choice for the "homeless rich"
   of Sicily, of whom there were hundreds. The excesses of the Baroque
   style palazzi and country villas to be constructed in Sicily, however,
   were soon to make Versailles seem a model of restraint.

   As the 18th century dawned, Sicilian architects were employed to create
   the new palazzi and churches. These architects, often local, were able
   to design in a more sophisticated style than those of the late 17th
   century; many had been trained in mainland Italy and had returned with
   a more detailed understanding of the Baroque idiom. Their work inspired
   less-travelled Sicilian designers. Very importantly, these architects
   were also assisted by the books of engravings by Domenico de' Rossi,
   who for the first time wrote down text with his engravings, giving the
   precise dimensions and measurements of many of the principal
   Renaissance and Baroque façades in Rome. In this way, the Renaissance
   finally came late to Sicily by proxy.

   At this stage of its development, Sicilian Baroque still lacked the
   freedom of style that it was later to acquire. Giovanni Battista
   Vaccarini was the leading Sicilian architect during this period. He
   arrived on the island in 1730 bringing with him a fusion of the
   concepts of Bernini and Borromini, and introduced to the island's
   architecture a unified movement and a play of curves, which would have
   been unacceptable in Rome itself. However, his works are considered of
   lesser quality than that which was to come. Notable works which date
   from this period are the 18th century wings of the Palazzo Biscari at
   Catania; and Vaccarini's church of Santa Agata, also in Catania. On
   this building Vaccarini quite clearly copied the capitals from Guarino
   Guarini's Architettura Civile. It is this frequent copying of
   established designs that causes the architecture from this period,
   while opulent, also to be disciplined and almost reined in. Vaccarini's
   style was to dominate Catania for the next decades.

   A second hindrance to Sicilian architects' fully achieving their
   potential earlier was that frequently they were only rebuilding a
   damaged structure, and as a consequence having to match their designs
   to what had been before, or remained. The Cathedral of San Giorgio at
   Modica (Illustration 10) is an example. It was badly damaged in the
   earthquake of 1613, rebuilt in 1643 in a Baroque style while keeping
   the medieval layout, then damaged again in 1693. Rebuilding again began
   in 1702, by an unknown architect. Finally, Rosario Gagliardi oversaw
   the façade's completion in 1760, but the compromises he had to make in
   deference to the existing structure are obvious. While Gagliardi used
   the same formulae he used so successfully at the church of San Giorgio
   in Ragusa, here in Modica the building is heavier, and lacks his usual
   lightness of touch and freedom of design.

   There were also at this time other influences at work. Between 1718 and
   1734 Sicily was ruled personally by Charles VI from Vienna, and as a
   result close ties with Austrian architecture can be perceived. Several
   buildings on the island are shameless imitations of the works of
   Fischer von Erlach. One Sicilian architect, Tomasso Napoli, a monk,
   visited Vienna twice early in the century, returning with a store of
   engraving and drawings. He was later the architect of two country
   villas of the early Sicilian Baroque period, remarkable for their
   concave and convex walls and the complex design of their external
   staircases. One villa, his Villa Palagonia begun in 1705, is the most
   complex and ingenious of all constructed in Sicily's Baroque era; its
   double staircase of straight flights, frequently changing direction,
   was to be the prototype of a distinguishing feature of Sicilian
   Baroque.

   Later, a new wave of architects, who would master the Baroque
   sentiments, aware of Rococo interior styles beginning elsewhere to gain
   an ascendancy over Baroque, would go on to develop the flamboyance,
   freedom, and movement that are synonymous with the term Sicilian
   Baroque today.

High Sicilian Baroque

   Illustration 11: Duomo in Syracuse, Andrea Palma's cathedral façade
   (begun in 1728). Based on the formula of a Roman triumphal arch, the
   broken masses within a columned façade create a theatrical effect.
   Enlarge
   Illustration 11: Duomo in Syracuse, Andrea Palma's cathedral façade
   (begun in 1728). Based on the formula of a Roman triumphal arch, the
   broken masses within a columned façade create a theatrical effect.

   Around 1730, the Baroque style gradually began to break away from the
   defined Roman style of Baroque and gain an even stronger individuality,
   for two reasons: the rush to rebuild was subsiding, construction was
   becoming more leisurely and thoughtful; and a new clutch of home-grown
   Sicilian architects came to the forefront. This new generation had
   watched the rebuilding in the Baroque, and studied the ever more
   frequent engravings and architectural books and treatises arriving from
   the mainland. However, they were not like their predecessors (the
   former students of the Romans), and consequently were able to formulate
   strong individual styles of their own. They included Andrea Palma,
   Rosario Gagliardi and Tomasso Napoli. While taking account of the
   Baroque of Naples and Rome, they now adapted their designs for the
   local needs and traditions. Their use of resources and exploitation of
   the sites was often wildly inventive. Napoli and then Vaccarini had
   promoted the use of the external staircase, which was now taken to a
   new dimension: churches upon the summits of a hills would be reached by
   fantastical flights of steps evoking Vaccarini's mentor Francesco De
   Sanctis's Spanish Steps in Rome.

   Façades of churches often came to resemble wedding cakes rather than
   places of worship as the architects grew in confidence, competence, and
   stature. Church interiors, which until this date had been slightly
   pedestrian, came especially in Palermo to be decorated in a riot of
   inlaid marbles of a wide variety of colours. Professor Anthony Blunt
   has described this decoration as "either fascinating or repulsive, but
   however the individual spectator may react to it, this style is a
   characteristic manifestation of Sicilian exuberance, and must be
   classed amongst the most important and original creations of Baroque
   art on the island". This is the key to Sicilian Baroque; it was ideally
   matched to the Sicilian personality, and this was the reason it evolved
   so dramatically on the island. Nowhere in Sicily is the development of
   the new Baroque style more evident than in Ragusa and Catania.

Ragusa

   Ragusa was very badly damaged in 1693. The town is in two halves,
   divided by a deep ravine known as the "Valle dei Ponti": the older town
   of Ragusa Ibla, and the higher Ragusa Superiore.

   Ragusa Ibla, the lower city, boasts an impressive array of Baroque
   architecture, which includes the Church of San Giorgio by Rosario
   Gagliardi, designed in 1738 (Illustration 12). In the design of this
   church Gagliardi exploited the difficult terrain of the hillside site.
   The church towers impressively over a massive marble staircase of some
   250 steps, a Baroque feature, especially exploited in Sicily due to the
   island's topography. The tower seems to explode from the façade,
   accentuated by the columns and pilasters canted against the curved
   walls. Above the doorways and window apertures, pediments scroll and
   curve with a sense of freedom and movement which would have been
   unthinkable to those earlier architects inspired by Bernini and
   Borromini. The neoclassical dome was not added until 1820.
   Illustration 12: Rosario Gagliardi's Church of San Giorgio, Ragusa.
   Enlarge
   Illustration 12: Rosario Gagliardi's Church of San Giorgio, Ragusa.

   In an alley connecting Ragusa Ibla with Ragusa Superiore is the church
   of Santa Maria delle Scale. This church is interesting, though badly
   damaged in the earthquake. Only half the church was rebuilt in Baroque
   style, while the surviving half was kept in the original Norman (with
   Gothic features), thus demonstrating in one piece the evolution of
   Sicilian Baroque.

   The Palazzo Zacco is one of the more notable Baroque buildings of the
   city, its Corinthian columns supporting balconies of amazing wrought
   iron work, while supports of grotesques mock, shock or amuse the
   passerby. The palazzo was built in the second half of the 18th century
   by the Baron Melfi di San Antonio. It was later acquired by the Zacco
   family, after which it is named. The building has two street façades,
   each with six wide balconies bearing the coat of arms of the Melfi
   family, a frame of acanthus leaves from which a puttino leans. The
   balconies, a feature of the palazzo, are notable for the differing
   corbels which support them, ranging from putti to musicians and
   grotesques. The focal points of the principal façade are the three
   central balconies, divided by columns with Corinthian capitals. Here
   the balconies are supported by images of musicians with grotesque
   faces.

   The Cathedral of San Giovanni Battista in Ragusa Superiore was built
   between 1718 and 1778. Its principal façade is pure Baroque, containing
   fine carvings and sculptures. The cathedral has a high Sicilian belfry
   in the same style. The ornate Baroque interior is separated into three
   colonnaded aisles (Illustration 3). Ragusa Superiore, the most badly
   damaged part of the town, was replanned following 1693 around the
   cathedral and displays an unusual phenomenon of Sicilian Baroque: the
   palazzi here are peculiar to this town, of only two storeys and long,
   with the central bay only emphasised by a balcony and an arch to the
   inner garden. This very Portuguese style, probably designed to minimise
   damage in future earthquakes, is very different to the palazzi in
   Ragusa Ibla, which are in true Sicilian style. Unusually, Baroque
   lingered on here until the early 19th century. The last palazzo built
   here was in the Baroque form but with columns of Roman Doric and
   neoclassical balconies.

Catania

   Illustration 13: Catania duomo. Giovanni Battista Vaccarini's principal
   façade of 1736 shows Spanish architectural influences.
   Enlarge
   Illustration 13: Catania duomo. Giovanni Battista Vaccarini's principal
   façade of 1736 shows Spanish architectural influences.

   Sicily's second city, Catania, was the most damaged of all the larger
   cities in 1693, with only the medieval Castello Ursino and three
   tribunes of the cathedral remaining. Thus it was replanned and rebuilt.
   The new design separated the city into quarters, divided by two roads
   meeting at an intersection known as the Piazza dell Duomo (Cathedral
   Square). Rebuilding was supervised by the Bishop of Catania, and the
   city's only surviving architect, Alonzo di Benedetto. Benedetto headed
   a team of junior architects called in from Messina, which quickly began
   to rebuild, concentrating first on the Piazza dell Duomo. Three palazzi
   are situated here, the Bishop's Palace, the Seminario and one other.
   The architects worked in complete harmony and it is impossible to
   distinguish Benedetto's work from that of his junior colleagues. The
   work is competent but not remarkable, with decorated rustication in the
   17th-century Sicilian style, but often the decoration on the upper
   floors is superficial. This is typical of the Baroque of this period
   immediately after the earthquake.

   In 1730, Vaccarini arrived in Catania as the appointed city architect
   and immediately impressed on the architecture the Roman Baroque style.
   The pilasters lose their rustication and support Roman type cornices
   and entablatures, or curved pediments, and free-standing columns
   support balconies. Vaccarini also exploited the local black lava stone
   as a decorative feature rather than a general building material, using
   it intermittently with other materials, and spectacularly for an
   obelisk supported on the back of the Catanian heraldic elephant, for a
   fountain in the style of Bernini in front of the new Town hall.
   Vaccarini's principal façade to Catania's cathedral, dedicated to Santa
   Agata, shows strong Spanish influences even at this late stage of
   Sicilian Baroque. Also in the city is Stefano Ittar's Church of the
   Collegiata, built around 1768. It is an example of Sicilian Baroque at
   its most stylistically simple.

Interiors

   Illustration 14: La chiesa del Gesù, Palermo (1564–1633), with abundant
   use of polychrome marble on the floor and walls.
   Enlarge
   Illustration 14: La chiesa del Gesù, Palermo (1564–1633), with abundant
   use of polychrome marble on the floor and walls.

   Sicilian church exteriors had been decorated in elaborate styles from
   the first quarter of the 17th century, with profuse use of sculpture,
   stucco, frescoes, and marble (Illustration 14). As the post-earthquake
   churches were becoming completed in the late 1720s, interiors also
   began to reflect this external decoration, becoming lighter and less
   intense (compare illustration 14 to the later interior of illustration
   15), with profuse sculpted ornamentation of pillars, cornices, and
   pediments, often in the form of putti, flora, and fauna. Inlaid
   coloured marbles on floors and walls in complex patterns are one of the
   most defining features of the style. These patterns with their roundels
   of porphyry are often derived from designs found in the Norman
   cathedrals of Europe, again demonstrating the Norman origins of
   Sicilian architecture. The high altar is usually the pièce de
   resistance: in many instances a single block of coloured marble,
   decorated with gilt scrolls and swags, and frequently inset with other
   stones such as lapis lazuli and agate. Steps leading to the altar dais
   are characteristically curving between concave and convex and in many
   cases decorated with inlaid coloured marbles. One of the finest
   examples of this is in the church of St Zita in Palermo.

   The building of Sicily's churches would typically be funded not just by
   individual religious orders but also by an aristocratic family.
   Contrary to popular belief, the majority of Sicily's nobility did not
   choose to have their mortal remains displayed for eternity in the
   Capuchin catacombs of Palermo, but were buried quite conventionally in
   vaults beneath their family churches. It has been said, though, that
   "the funeral of a Sicilian aristocrat was one of the great moments of
   his life". Funerals became tremendous shows of wealth; a result of this
   ostentation was that the stone memorial slabs covering the burial
   vaults today provide an accurate barometer of the development of
   Baroque and marble inlay techniques at any specific time. For instance,
   those from the first half of the 17th century are of simple white
   marble decorated with an incised armorial bearing, name, date, etc.
   From circa 1650, small quantities of coloured marble inlay appear,
   forming patterns, and this can be studied developing until, by the end
   of the century, the coats of arms and calligraphy are entirely of inset
   coloured marble, with decorative patterned borders. Long after Baroque
   began to fall from fashion in the 1780s, Baroque decor was still deemed
   more suitable for Catholic ritual than the new pagan-based
   neoclassicism.
   Illustration 15: Church of San Benedetto, Catania, with frescoes by
   Giovanni Tuccari.
   Enlarge
   Illustration 15: Church of San Benedetto, Catania, with frescoes by
   Giovanni Tuccari.
   Illustration 16: The nun's choir in the Church of San Benedetto,
   Catania.
   Enlarge
   Illustration 16: The nun's choir in the Church of San Benedetto,
   Catania.

   The Church of St Benedetto in Catania (Illustrations 15 and 16) is a
   fine example of a Sicilian Baroque interior, decorated between 1726 and
   1762, the period when Sicilian Baroque was at the height of its fashion
   and individuality. The ceilings were frescoed by the artist Giovanni
   Tuccari. The most spectacular part of the church's decoration is the
   nun's choir (Illustrations 16), created circa 1750, which was designed
   in such a way that the nuns' voices could be heard during services, but
   the nuns themselves were still quite separate from and unseen by the
   less spiritual world outside.

   With only a few notable exceptions, the interiors of the palazzi were
   from the start less elaborate than those of Sicily's Baroque churches.
   Many were finished without ornate Baroque interior decoration, simply
   because they took so long to build; by the time they were completed
   Baroque had passed from fashion, and the principal rooms were decorated
   in the new neoclassical style known as "Pompeian". Often one can find a
   fusion of the two styles, as in the ballroom wing of the Palazzo
   Aiutamicristo in Palermo, built by Andrea Giganti in 1763, where the
   ballroom ceiling was frescoed by Giuseppe Cristadoro with allegorical
   scenes framed by Baroque gilded motifs in plaster; this ceiling was
   already old-fashioned when it was finished, and the rest of the room
   was decorated in a far simpler mode. Changing use over the past 250
   years has simplified palazzo decor further, as the ground floors are
   now usually shops, banks, or restaurants, and the upper floors divided
   into apartments, their interiors lost.

   A third reason for the absence of Baroque decoration, and the most
   common, is that most rooms were never intended for such decoration.
   Many of the palazzi were vast, meant for huge numbers of people. The
   household of the Sicilian aristocrat, beginning with himself, his wife
   and many children, would typically also contain a collection of poorer
   relatives and other extended family members, all of whom had minor
   apartments in the house. There were also paid employees, often
   including a private chaplain or confessor, a major domo, governesses,
   secretary, archivist, accountant, librarian, and innumerable lower
   servants, plus a porter who rang a bell for a prescribed number of
   times according to the rank of an approaching guest. Often the
   servants' extended families, especially if elderly, also lived in the
   palazzo. Thus many rooms were necessary to house the household. These
   everyday living quarters, even for the "Maestro and Maestra di Casa",
   were often simply decorated and furnished. Further rooms were required
   by the Sicilian tradition that it was a sign of poor breeding to permit
   even mere acquaintances to stay in local inns. Any visiting foreigner,
   especially an Englishman, was regarded as a special trophy and added
   social prestige. Hence the Sicilian aristocrat's home was seldom empty
   or quiet.
   Illustration 17: The ballroom at the Palazzo Gangi, Palermo
   Enlarge
   Illustration 17: The ballroom at the Palazzo Gangi, Palermo

   The finest and most decorated rooms were those on the piano nobile,
   reserved for guests and entertaining. Entered formally from the
   external Baroque double staircase, these rooms consisted of a suite of
   large and small salons, with one very large salon being the principal
   room of the house, often used as a ballroom. Sometimes the guest
   bedrooms were sited here too, but by the end of the 18th century they
   were more often on a secondary floor above. If decorated during the
   Baroque era, the rooms would be profusely ornamented. Walls were
   frequently mirrored, the mirrors inset into gilded frames in the walls,
   often alternating with paintings similarly framed, while moulded nymphs
   and shepherdesses decorated the spaces between. Ceilings were high and
   frescoed, and from the ceiling hung huge coloured chandeliers of Murano
   glass, while further light came from gilded sconces flanking the
   mirrors adorning the walls. One of the most notable rooms in this style
   is the Gallery of Mirrors in Palermo's Palazzo Gangi (Illustration 17).
   This room with its frescoed ceiling by Gaspare Fumagalli is however one
   of the few Baroque rooms in this Baroque palazzo, which was (from 1750)
   extended and transformed by its owner Marianna Valguarnera, mostly in
   the later neoclassical style.

   Furniture during the Baroque era was in keeping with the style: ornate,
   gilded and frequently with marble used for tabletops. The furniture was
   transient within the house, frequently moved between rooms as required,
   while leaving other rooms unfurnished. Sometimes furniture was
   specifically commissioned for a certain room, for example to match a
   silk wall panel within a gilt frame. The furniture would always be
   arranged against a wall, never in the later conversational style in the
   centre of a room, which in the Baroque era was always left empty so as
   better to display the marble, or more often ceramic, patterned floor
   tiles.

   The common element to both church and palazzi interior design was the
   stucco work. Stucco is an important component of the Baroque design and
   philosophy, as it seamlessly combines architecture, sculpture, and
   painting in three-dimensional form. Its combination with trompe l'oeil
   ceilings and walls in Baroque illusionistic painting confuses reality
   and art. While in churches the stucco could represent angels and putti
   linked by swags of flowers, in a private house it might represent the
   owner's favourite foods or musical instruments.

Final period

   Illustration 18: Palazzo Beneventano del Bosco, Syracuse, designed by
   Luciano Alì between 1779–88 in restrained late Sicilian Baroque. The
   wrought iron balconies and sweeping curves, however, keep the
   approaching neoclassicism at bay.
   Enlarge
   Illustration 18: Palazzo Beneventano del Bosco, Syracuse, designed by
   Luciano Alì between 1779–88 in restrained late Sicilian Baroque. The
   wrought iron balconies and sweeping curves, however, keep the
   approaching neoclassicism at bay.

   As with all architectural styles, people eventually tired of Baroque.
   In some parts of Europe, it metamorphosed into the rococo, but not in
   Sicily. No longer ruled by Austria, Sicily, from 1735 officially the
   Kingdom of Sicily, was ruled by the King of Naples, Ferdinand IV. Hence
   Palermo was in constant association with the principal capital Naples,
   where there was architecturally a growing reversion to the more
   classical styles of architecture. Coupled with this, many of the more
   cultured Sicilian nobility developed a fashionable obsession with all
   things French, from philosophy to arts, fashion, and architecture. Many
   of them visited Paris in pursuit of these interests and returned with
   the latest architectural engravings and theoretical treatises. The
   French architect Léon Dufourny was in Sicily between 1787 and 1794 to
   study and analyse the ancient Greek temples on the island. Thus
   Sicilians rediscovered their ancient past, which with its classical
   idioms was now the height of fashion. The change in tastes did not come
   about overnight. Baroque remained popular on the island, but now
   Sicilian balconies, extravagant as ever, would be placed next to severe
   classical columns. Dufourney began designing in Palermo, and his
   "Entrance Temple" (1789) to the Botanical Gardens was the first
   building in Sicily in a style based on the Greek Doric order. It is
   pure neoclassical architecture, as established in England since 1760,
   and it was a sign of things to come.

   It was Dufourny's great friend and fellow architect Giuseppe Marvuglia
   who was to preside over the gradual decline of Sicilian Baroque. In
   1784 he designed the Palazzo Riso-Belmonte, the finest example of this
   period of architectural transition, combining both Baroque and
   Palladian motifs, built around an arcaded courtyard providing Baroque
   masses of light and shade, or chiaroscuro. The main façade, punctuated
   by giant pilasters, also had Baroque features, but the skyline was
   unbroken. The pilasters were undecorated, simple, and Ionic, and
   supported an undecorated entablature. Above the windows were classical
   unbroken pediments. Sicilian Baroque was waning.

   Another reason for the gradual decline in the development of Sicily's
   Baroque and building in general was that the money was running out.
   During the 17th century, the aristocracy had lived principally on their
   landed estates, tending and improving them, and as a result their
   income also. During the 18th century, the nobility gradually migrated
   towards the cities, in particular Palermo, to enjoy the social delights
   of the Viceroy's court and Catania. Their town palazzi grew in size and
   splendour, to the detriment of the abandoned estates, which were still
   expected to provide the revenue. The land agents left to run the
   estates over time became less efficient, or corrupt, often both.
   Consequently, aristocratic incomes fell. The aristocracy borrowed money
   using the estates as surety, until the value of the neglected estates
   fell below the money borrowed against them. Moreover, Sicily was by now
   as unstable politically as its nobility were financially. Ruled from
   Naples by the weak Ferdinand IV and his dominant wife, Sicily had
   declined to the point of no return long before 1798 and again in 1806
   when the King was forced by the invading French to flee Naples to
   Sicily. The French were kept at bay from Sicily only by an
   expeditionary force of 17,000 British troops, and Sicily was now ruled
   by Britain in effect if not in name. King Ferdinand then in 1811
   imposed the first taxes, at a single stroke alienating his aristocracy.

   The tax was rescinded by the British in 1812, who then imposed a
   British style constitution on the island. One legal innovation of this
   time of particular consequence for the aristocracy was that creditors,
   who had previously only been able to enforce repayments of the interest
   on a loan or mortgage, could now seize property. Property began to
   change hands in smaller parcels at auctions, and consequently a
   land-owning bourgeoisie immediately began to flourish. Revolts against
   the Bourbons in 1821, and 1848 divided the nobility, and liberalism was
   in the air. These factors coupled with the social and political
   upheaval of the following Risorgimento in the 19th century meant the
   Sicilian aristocracy was a doomed class. Furthermore, because of their
   neglect and dereliction of noblesse oblige, an essential element of the
   feudal system, the countryside was often ruled by bandits, and the once
   grand country villas were decaying. The building mania of the Sicilian
   upper class was over.
   Illustration 19: Palazzo Ducezio, Noto, by Vincenzo Sinatra, with
   Baroque on the ground floor, neoclassical above.
   Enlarge
   Illustration 19: Palazzo Ducezio, Noto, by Vincenzo Sinatra, with
   Baroque on the ground floor, neoclassical above.

   However, the British influence in Sicily was to provide Sicilian
   Baroque with one last flourish. Marvuglia, recognising the new fashion
   for all things British, developed the style he had first cautiously
   used at Palazzo Riso-Belmonte in 1784, combining some of the plainer,
   more solid elements of Baroque with Palladian motifs rather than
   Palladian designs. The late Sicilian Baroque was similar in style to
   the Baroque popular in England at the beginning of the 18th century,
   popularised by Sir John Vanbrugh with such edifices as Blenheim Palace.
   An example is Marvuglia's Church of San Francesco di Sales, which is
   almost English in its interpretation of Baroque. However, this was a
   temporary success and the neoclassical style was soon dominant. Few
   aristocrats could now afford to build, and the new style was mainly
   used in public and civil buildings such as those at the Botanical
   Gardens in Palermo. Sicilian architects — even Andrea Giganti, once a
   competent architect in Baroque — now began to design in the
   neoclassical style, but in this case in the version of the neoclassical
   adopted by fashionable France. Giganti's Villa Galletti at Bagheria is
   clearly inspired by the work of Ange-Jacques Gabriel.

   As with the early days of Sicilian Baroque, the first buildings of the
   new neoclassical era were often copies or hybrids of the two styles.
   The Palazzo Ducezio (Illustration 19) was begun in 1746, and the ground
   floor with arcades creating play of light and shadow is pure Baroque.
   However, when a few years later the upper floor was added, despite the
   use of Baroque broken pediments above the windows, the neoclassical
   French influence is very pronounced, highlighted by the central curved
   bay. The Sicilian Baroque was gradually and slowly being superseded by
   French neoclassicism.

Legacy

   Illustration 20: The Church Of Anime Santes Del Purgatorio, Ragusa,
   constructed in the latter half of the 18th century.
   Enlarge
   Illustration 20: The Church Of Anime Santes Del Purgatorio, Ragusa,
   constructed in the latter half of the 18th century.

   Sicilian Baroque is today recognised as an architectural style, largely
   due to the work of Anthony Blunt.

   Most of the Baroque palazzi continued in private ownership throughout
   the 19th century, as the old aristocracy either married middle-class
   money or fell further into debt. There were a few exceptions and some
   of these retain the ancestral palazzo still today. Thanks to the
   continuing religious devotion of the Sicilian people many of the
   Sicilian Baroque churches are today still in the use for which they
   were designed.

   However, much of the blame for the decay and ruinous state of
   preservation of so many palazzi must fall not just on owners unwilling
   to accept change, but the political agendas of successive socialist
   governments. Some of the finest Baroque villas and palazzi, including
   the Palermo palace of the Prince of Lampedusa, are still in ruins
   following the United States bombing raids of 1943. Often no attempt has
   been made to restore or even secure them. Those that survived the raids
   in good repair are often sub-divided into offices or apartments, their
   Baroque interiors dismantled, divided, and sold.

   The remaining members of the Sicilian aristocracy who still inhabit
   their ancestral palazzi have refrained from filling their gardens with
   wild animals to lure in the masses to view their homes (unlike their
   English counterparts, who spurned Baroque as vulgar excess). The
   remaining in situ Princes, Marquesses, and Counts of Sicily have
   preferred to live in splendid isolation, surrounded often by beauty and
   decay. It is only today both owners and the state are awakening to the
   possibility that if action is not taken soon it will be too late to
   save this particular part of the Sicilian heritage.

   As Sicily now becomes a more politically stable and secure and less
   corrupt environment, the Baroque palazzi are very slowly beginning to
   open their doors to the eager paying public, albeit American and
   British rather than Italian. A few years ago the Gangi Palace ballroom
   was alone in its status of having been a film set, but today
   long-shrouded salons and ballrooms are hosting corporate and public
   events. Some palazzi are offering a bed and breakfast service to paying
   guests, in this way once again providing impressive hospitality to
   visitors to Sicily, the purpose for which they were originally
   intended.

   In 2002, UNESCO selectively included baroque monuments of Val di Noto
   into its World Heritage List as "providing outstanding testimony to the
   exuberant genius of late Baroque art and architecture" and
   "representing the culmination and final flowering of Baroque art in
   Europe.

Notable architects of Sicilian Baroque

     * Antonello Gagini
     * Rosario Gagliardi
     * Andrea Giganti
     * Guarino Guarini
     * Stefano Ittar
     * Paolo Labisi
     * Giulio Lasso
     * Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia
     * Tomasso Napoli
     * Andrea Palma
     * Vincenzo Sinatra
     * Giovanni Battista Vaccarini

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