A Short Stroll through Noto, Noto, Italy

The Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto in south-eastern Sicily provide outstanding testimony to the exuberant genius of late Baroque art and architecture. [They] represent the culmination and final flowering of Baroque art in Europe. The exceptional quality of the late Baroque art and architecture in the Val di Noto lies in its geographical and chronological homogeneity, and is the result of the 1693 earthquake in this region.

The Romans built the city of Netum on the slopes of Mount Alveria in south-east Sicily. Legend tells that Daedalus stayed in this city after his flight over the Ionian Sea, as did Hercules after his seventh task. Centuries later it fell to the Muslims who renamed it Nawtis. It remained an important Islamic stronghold until 1091, when it became the last city in Sicily to fall to the Christians. Over the following centuries it flourished, until in 1693 disaster struck, in the form of an earthquake. Most of the buildings were razed to the ground and over half the population perished.

To rebuild their city the people chose a site some eight kilometres to the south. As a result, the old part of Noto today is a beautifully coherent example of Sicilian baroque architecture. Along with several other towns in the region, also rebuilt after that earthquake, it is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).