Cattedrale di San Nicolò in Noto, Italy

The Late Baroque towns of the Val di Noto are a UNESCO World heritage site made up of eight towns in southeastern Sicily. Rebuilt in a style unique to the island after the devastating earthquake of 1693, an estimated 7.4 on the magnitude scale, causing around 60,000 casualties.

Many towns in southeastern Sicily were completely razed, including the medieval town of Noto, with half of its residents killed by the earthquake. Upon rebuilding Noto, the decision was made to relocate it closer to the Ionian coast, about 10km south of the destroyed former settlement.

New Noto was built on flatter land, with its buildings more spread out for aesthetic and safety reasons, aimed at avoiding the domino-like effect that the cramped buildings of the old town had succumbed to during the earthquake. Construction on the town’s cathedral began in the early 18th century. Upon its eventual completion in 1776, it was one of the town’s grandest structures, and was dedicated to St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra.

The first sense of grandeur and occasion for many visitors will be climbing the massive grand staircase to cathedral’s giant bronze front door. The original ornate interior was destroyed when the cathedral’s dome, and much of the roof, collapsed in 1996, owing to structural weakening from an earthquake in 1990, combined with sub-par remedial work from previous renovations.

After the dome’s reconstruction was completed in 2007, the inside of the church was painted mostly white. While the present-day interior looks somewhat plain, the imposing lecturn and cherub adorned chancel provide Baroque intricacies to match the cathedral’s outer features.

Noto is regarded as the capital of Sicilian Baroque, with the Cattedrale di San Nicolò viewed as a seminal building, and part of the final flourish of the Baroque style in Europe. The warm golden hues that most of the town is draped in, comes from the pale yellow sandstone used during its early formation. Nowhere does this magical glow emanate from more brightly than from the town’s stunning cathedral centerpiece.