Siti Unesco

VAL DI NOTO – Le città Tardo Barocche

"Le città Tardo Barocche del Val di Noto"

This group of towns in South-eastern Sicily provides outstanding testimony to the exuberant genius of late Baroque art and architecture. The cities of the Val di Noto 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, as well as its quantity, the result of the 1693 earthquake in this region. The eight cities of South-eastern Sicily that make up this inscription, which are characteristic of the settlement pattern and urban form of this region, are permanently at risk from earthquakes and eruptions of Mount Etna.

The eight towns of South-eastern Sicily (Caltagirone, Militello Val di Catania, Catania, Modica, Noto, Palazzolo, Ragusa Ibla and Scicli) were all rebuilt after 1693 over or near the ruins of the ones destroyed during the earthquake of the same year. They are the results of remarkable social commitment, successfully carried out and showing startling architectural and artistic expertise. Working purely in a late Baroque style, they show some distinctive building and town planning features.

Inscription on the Unesco World Heritage List: 2002

Criteria for Acceptance into the Unesco World Heritage List
Id. n. 1024rev 2002 C (i) (ii) (iv) (v)

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