NOTO
HOTELS AND
RESTAURANTS IN NOTO
Noto, a town in the province of Siracusa, sits on a
plateau dominating the valley of the Asinaro and its citrus
plantations. This tiny Baroque jewel endowed with an opulent
beauty is the result of a single tragic event: the
earthquake of 1693, that, despite bringing death and
destruction to this part of Sicily, also sparked a huge
effort to rebuild. Previously, the town that stood some
9-10km away (see below Noto Antica) had its origins way back
in Antiquity. lt witnessed the birth of Ducetius who, in the
5C, made the Greeks quake in their shoes for having incited
the Siculi against his Sicilian nationalist movement. The
1693 earthquake completely destroyed the old town. A broader
and less vulnerable site was chosen for the new town, one
that might accommodate a straightforward, linear town plan,
with intersections at right angles and wide, parallel
streets in accordance with the new Baroque taste. Three of
the main streets run on an east to west axis, so that they
might always be bathed in sunshine.
Three different social categories were catered for: the
highest part was reserved for the nobility, the centre for
the clergy (all except the hundred-year-old Palazzo
Landolina), while the ordinary people were left to fill the
rest of the town. Uniformly, the buildings are majestic: all
are built of the soft, compacted limestone found locally
that loses its glaring whiteness with time as a glorious
patina develops imparting a magnificent golden or rosy hue
to each facet especially when these are caught in the last
rays of the setting sun. Many Sicilian artists co-operated
in the reconstruction of Noto conducted under the
supervision of the Duke of Camastra, the acting
representative of the Spanish viceroy; these included Paolo
Labisi, Vincenzo Sinatra and Rosario
Gagliardi who, being a close follower of Borromini, was
perhaps one of the most inventive. The town was built like a
stage set might be: its perspectives were configured and
implemented in an entirely original way, flattered and
enhanced with curvaceous forms and curvilinear accents in
façades, decorated brackets and keystones, curlicues and
volutes, masks, cherubs and balconies with gracefully
bulging wrought-iron railings. Although Noto was rebuilt
entirely by local craftsmen, it fits into a much larger
picture as Italian hands modelled, fashioned and realised
expressions of the Baroque movement all over Europe and
beyond to the new Russian capital, St Petersburg.
The main axis is provided by Corso Vittorio Emanuele which
runs through three piazzas, each with its own church. The
street extends from Porta Reale, a monumental gateway
modelled on a triumphal arch, erected in the 19C. Above the
entrance is a pelican, the symbol of self-denial – a
reference to King Ferdinand Il, who visited the town in
1838; flanked on either side with a towershorthand for a
fortress and thereby a symbol for strength, and on the other
a cirneco – an old Sicilian breed of dog symbol of loyalty.
Beyond stretches an avenue of trees and to one side the
public gardens (Giardino Pubblico) dotted with patches of
purple-flowering bougainvillaea and palm trees, and the
occasional marble bust of a famous local figure. This is a
common meeting-point for the townspeople to congregate
around and a good spot from where to watch the daily
passegiata.
Piazza Immacolata – The square is overlooked by the fairly
austere Baroque façade of San Francesco all'immacolata (designed
by Sinatra). An important stairway leads up to a terrace
with a statue of the Virgin in the centre, stretched out
before its dependent monastery. The church contains several
notable works of art removed from the Franciscan church
abandoned in the old town of
Noto: these include on the main altar a painted wooden
Virgin and Child attributed to Antonio
Monachello (1564), and, set into the floor of the nave on
the right, the tombstone of a Franciscan priest (1575).
To the left of the church, by the entrance to Via San
Francesco d'Assisi, sits the lovely Monastero del Santissimo
Salvatore marked by an elegant tower rising tall above the
curved frontage, once a watchtower. The windows are graced
with the most wonderful pot-bellied wrought-iron balconies,
echoed across the street at the Convento di Santa Chiara, by
Gagliardi.
Piazza Municipio – This is the most majestic and the busiest
of the three squares, overlooked on the left by the
eye-catching elevation of the Palazzo Ducezio, and on the
right by the broad flight of steps to the cathedral entrance,
flanked by two beautiful horse-shoe-shaped hedges.
Cathedral – The broad façade with its two tall bell-towers
does not completely obscure the remains of the dome which
tragically collapsed destroying a large section of the nave
in 1996. The wide stairway appears to sweep up from the
piazza with a great movement, accentuated no doubt by the
two tall exedra side hedges, each with paved area above
echoing and thereby emphasising their serpentine line.
Alongside the cathedral, on the same level, stand the 1800’s
Palazzo Vescovile
(Bishops Palace) and Palazzo Landolina di Sant’Alfano, both
sober in their countenance in
contrast with the exuberant style of the other buildings in
the square.
Opposite, sits the Palazzo Ducezio, a well-proportioned
buildings with curvilinear elements, enclosed by a Classical
type of portico designed by Sinatra. The upper section was
added in the 1950s. The main feature on the east side of the
square is the façade of the Basilica del Santissimo
Salvatore.
Via Nicolaci – Right off Corso Vittorio Emanuele. The eye is
naturally drawn along the street as it gently rises up to
the Chiesa dl Montevergine with its fine concave frontage
framed between bell-towers, designed by Sinatra. Both sides
of the street are lined with fine Baroque buildings: on the
left, note Palazzo Nicolaci di Villadorata with its fabulous
balconies. See how the richly carved brackets are ornamented
with arrays of fantastical cherubs, horses, mermaids and
lions, grotesque figures among which in the centre, a figure
with distinctively Middle-Eastern features (snub nose and
thick lips). It is intended that the interior will be opened
to the public once restoration is completed.
Towards the middle of May, the citizens recreate
brilliantly-coloured tableaux of flowers inside the doorways
of the palazzi: these panels composed entirely of petals are
in celebration of the infiorata festival. The cobbles of Via
Nicolaci are trasformed into some gigantic canvas onto which
the artists apply their multicoloured brushstrokes picked
from palettes of petals: each year the designs are different.
Returning to Corso Vittorio Emanuele, on the left stands the
imposing complex of the Jesuit Church and College attributed
to Gagliardi. The fine central doorway is enclosed between
four columns and, at the top, grotesque masks.
Piazza XVI Maggio – The most striking feature on the square
is Gagliardi’s elegant convex façade for the Chiesa di San
Domenico designed with an emphatic use of line and boldly
contained by two tiers of colunms separated by a high
cornice. The interior, predominantly white and encrusted
with stucco, is graced with polychrome marble altars.
In front of the church lies the delightful Villetta
d'Ercole, a public garden with a 1700’s fountain in the
centre named after Heracles. Opposite, stands the 1800’s
Teatro Vittorio Emanuele III.
The second street on the left off Corso Vittorio Emanuele,
Via Ruggero VII, leads to the Chiesa del Carmine; a church
with an elegant concave frontage and a Baroque doorway.
Return to Piazza XVI Maggio so as to turn up Via Bovio,
which passes, on the right, the former Carmine convent known
as Casa dei Padri Crociferi.
Via Cavour – This noble street runs parallel to, but on a
level above, Corso Vittorio Emanuele, between a series of
interesting buildings: Palazzo Astuto (no. 54) has wonderful
balconies with bulging wrought-iron railings; Palazzo
Trigona Cannicarao (no. 93). Beyond the palazzo turn left
into Via Coffa, then left again at the end so as to pass
before the late-Baroque Palazzo Impellizzeri, and turn right
into Via Sallicano. This in turn leads right up to the
Chiesa del Santissimo Crocefisso designed by Gagliardi and
containing Francesco Laurana's sensitive painting entitled
the Madonna della Neve.
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