Barocco Siciliano: A Baroque Frenzy

by Andrea Battaglini

Noto, Scicli, Modica and Ragusa are the most prized jewels of Sicilian Baroque.
Stone filigree,menacing gargoyles,and wrought-iron wonders decorate
the ornate buildings and churches included in an
eye-staggering springtime tour itinerary of Western Sicily.



Ever-changing and multi-faceted as though viewed through a prism. Bedecked with figures, creatures, faces and forms, this architecture both delights and intimidates. Its ornamentation fairly bursts from its moorings, fleeing towards the heavens, crashing towards the earth, frollocks like a naughty child beneath the blazing Sicilian sun.



The world of Noto, Scicli, Modica and Ragusa is indeed a place apart.


Lions roar down from iron balcony parapets, fuul of vigor yet frozen in time. Winged horses leap and whinny in mid-air, gargoyles jeer at passers-by from palace ledges. Grotesque stone masks, bizarre demons of Hellenic descent, look menacingly out from the walls. With their eerie, hollow eyes they are meant to discourage louts and loiterers.

By contrast, the Barocco churches are permeated with quite a different aire. Their Corinthian columns, staid between convex and concave facades, draw attention to themselves, then allow the lines to gently guide visitors' gazes elsewhere: on to a frieze perhaps, or a pilaster. The result is a dream-like sensation of wonder, of slow-motion, of a rhythm not unlike the Processioni Pasquali (Easter processions) which wind their ways through the town of Ispica, half-way between Noto and Modica.



Click the cities of the itinerary for further information



Useful Information
For information you may call the Tourism Center in via G.Negri 8, tel. 02-72002340.
A typical farm-stay accomodation is Le Mole (highway to Catania, 20km from Ragusa, phone 0932-926066). In addition to a very good restaurant, it counts 6 rooms in its historical stone building. A good restaurant in Modica is Trattoria delle Torri, (via Nativo 30-32. Modica, Tel: 0932-751 286 Closed Mon.).


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