Noto Cathedral is one of the most recognized monuments of Sicily. Recently refurbished the Cathedral is one of the UNESCO Heritage on the Island. It’s the most important place of Catholic worship in the city of Noto, as well as the bishop’s seat of the homonymous diocese, in Sicily. It is located on the top of a wide staircase, on the north side of Piazza Municipio (domus-ecclesiae area), and is dedicated to Saint Nicolò, bishop of Mira.

History

The façade responds to the “typology with the two side towers” and presents evident analogies with the parish church of Versailles and the engravings of the Saint Roch church in Paris. It is the result of a substantial reorganization carried out by Vincenzo Sinatra in the second half of the eighteenth century (on a bell tower is dated 1768) in the pre-existing unfinished facade of Rosario Gagliardi, who in turn had reworked the original project (perhaps the work of Fra Angelo Italy). The subsequent addition of new elements makes evident the linguistic inconsistencies between the different elements and the eclecticism of the composition. For example, in the superelevation of the two bell towers, the pilasters are not repeated as at the base, while the curled gables indicate an influence of the eighteenth century in Catania. The main doors are also inspired by the fifteenth century (taken from Vignola or Domenico Fontana). The central window with “ears” and curvilinear tympanum is instead taken from the repertoire of Andrea Pozzo and is close to some netine realizations by Francesco Paolo Labisi (Carmine church). The temple was probably completed at the end of the eighteenth century, although in the following century the dome was rebuilt, in neoclassical style with neo-Baroque traces, to replace the previous one (which was not the original one), collapsed due to earthquakes. In the last century, around the fifties, various reconstructions and changes were made in the decorative apparatus, not always very successful, such as the trompe-l’oeil of the vertical structures and the tempera decoration of the vaults by the painters Arduino and Baldinelli, the radical modifications of the main altar and of the ancient organ and also the replacement of the original pitched roof (with wooden structure) of the central nave with a heavy latero-cement slab which was probably one of the main causes of the collapse of 1996.

After 1996

Following the earthquake of December 13, 1990, the church suffered structural damage and even then it was decided to close it to worship and submit it to restoration. However, there was no time to take such measures. On the evening of March 13, 1996, due to a serious constructive defect of the pillars of the central nave (filled “with sacks” with river stones rather than with squared stone blocks), the first of the right pylons supporting the dome “by crushing” he ruined to the ground, dragging the dome with him in the collapse and by domino effect the entire right aisle, the central nave and the right transept leaving only a small part of the drum miraculously standing. Fortunately there were no victims, because at that time the church was not open to the public. The area affected by the collapse was 1000 m², with a volume of about 6000 m³. The request to the designers in charge was a project “Com’era, dov’era”.

In January 2000, after a first phase of clearing the rubble, reconstruction and restoration work began, carried out by local workers, trained for the occasion in the use of limestone and ancient technologies. Initially they were rebuilt with square stone blocks and without any use of reinforced concrete the new pillars on the right, which retain the shape and features of the original ones, but without the constructive flaw that had caused the collapse of the basilica. Then we moved on to the demolition and subsequent reconstruction of the pillars of the left aisle, which reported the same serious imperfections as those collapsed. Subsequently the central nave, the right aisle, the right-hand cupolas, the buttresses, the transverse and longitudinal arches have returned to their former splendor. The last chapter of the reconstruction of the cathedral was the elevation of the new dome, almost identical to the original: it differs only from small corrections, such as the thickening of a few millimeters of the base of the drum. The new roof structure of the church is not of the latero-cement type (like the collapsed attic dating back to the fifties), but it was rebuilt as it was originally with wooden trusses and mantle in Sicilian tiles, while the vaults are made with the traditional hooded and plaster. Once the masonry reconstruction work was completed, the stucco decorative elements, such as capitals, trabeation and cornices, were finally restored.

The reconstruction was therefore performed with the same materials and techniques of the eighteenth century, within a building site in which tradition and innovation were combined. Local stones were used such as white limestone for vertical structures, sandstone for archived structures and Modica stone for paving, but assembled using modern anti-seismic methods. In fact, materials such as carbon fiber have been used to improve resistance to strong earthquakes.

At the end of this long and complex work of reconstruction and restoration of the existing, after eleven years from the collapse, on 18 June 2007, the church was reopened to worship. The ceremony was attended by the then Prime Minister Romano Prodi and head of civil defense Guido Bertolaso ​​and most of the regional and national civil and religious authorities.

A new pictorial decoration began in the summer of 2009 from the dome’s pendentives. In the ceremony held Sunday, February 13, 2011 and presided over by the bishop of Noto Antonio Staglianò in the presence of civil authorities, including Commissioner Vittorio Sgarbi and Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo, was inaugurated the large fresco of the dome, depicting “The Pentecost”, and of the plumes, with the four evangelists, of the Russian painter Oleg Supereko. On the same occasion, the stained glass windows of the drum, created by the Tuscan artist Francesco Mori, author of a copy of the fenestra rotunda magna of Duccio di Buoninsegna in the choir of the cathedral of Siena, have been inaugurated, and the new altar, the cross and the silver-plated bronze ambagon inspired by Bernini by the Roman sculptor Giuseppe Ducrot.

On 8 April 2016 the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella officially visited the cathedral together with Vittorio Sgarbi.

External

The limestone limestone façade is an example of late Baroque style, with eclectic elements and a marked neoclassicist aspiration. It stands on the summit of a scenic staircase composed of three ramps dating back to the eighteenth century but renovated at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The typology of the façade is in lateral towers and refers to some French compositions of the eighteenth century, which were inspired by the architects of the time. It is crowned by four late eighteenth-century statues (executed in 1796 by the sculptor Giuseppe Orlando and depicting the evangelists) and presents in the first order, flanked by slender Corinthian columns, three majestic portals: the central one is in bronze and represents episodes from the life of Saint Conrador Confalonieri from Piacenza, work of the Sicilian sculptor Giuseppe Pirrone (1982).

Internal

The interior, a Latin cross with three naves, of which the central one is larger than the two side, has undergone many changes, reaching its current appearance only in 1899, when the chapel of the SS. Sacrament. Almost completely unadorned until the middle of the last century, it was frescoed by the Turin-born Nicola Arduino and by the Bolognese Armando Baldinelli, between 1950 and 1956, following a vote made by the mayor of the city to San Corrado Confalonieri during the war. The reconstruction following the collapse of 1996 and the consequent loss of the iconographic apparatus has returned the inside to the original candor.

In the apse are placed two bishop’s thrones with their stools in carved and gilded wood (eighteenth-nineteenth centuries), a wooden choir, the marble coat of arms of Bishop Angelo Calabretta in the center of the paving, the high altar in polychrome marble with shoulders the triptych of the master Arduino (whose frame comes from the ancient organ) depicting St. Nicholas in the center, St. Conrad on the left, and St. William on the right.

In the side aisles it is possible to admire the pre-existing restored works that survived the collapse.
In the right aisle there are the following works:

• Baptismal font in polychrome marble, Immaculate with Saints Martyrs, oil painting on canvas (18th century);
• Adoration of the shepherds, oil painting on canvas by Giovanni Bonomo (1783); next to the side entrance there is a polychrome marble mausoleum of the provost Giovanni Di Lorenzo;
  
• Madonna delle Grazie, bas-relief in painted marble (XVI century), stucco decorations and stucco sculptures of Saint Lucia and Sant’Agata, Assenza (1924);
• Keys delivery to St. Peter, oil painting on canvas by Giuseppe Patania (1827). On the altar of the right transept there is a gilded and polychromatic wooden statue of Saint Nicholas (18th century). The chapel at the end of the right aisle houses the precious 16th century wooden ark covered in silver plate, finely worked in embossing and chisel, containing the remains of San Corrado Confalonieri, patron of the city and the Diocese of Noto (only visible during the festivities dedicated to the saint in the months of February and August).

In the left of the aisle:

• Miracle of St. Francis of Paola, oil painting on canvas, attr. Costantino Carasi (18th century);
  
• Spasimo di Sicilia, oil painting on canvas, Raffaele Politi (1809);
  
• Sacred Heart, polychrome wooden sculpture (19th century);
  
• Madonna and purging souls, attr. Costantino Carasi (18th century),
• San Michele, marble sculpture of the Gagini school (16th century).

On the altar of the left transept there is a Crucifix, in polychrome wood, coming from the Church of the SS. Providence in Ancient Noto. The bottom chapel of the left aisle is dedicated to the SS. Sacramento and is decorated with stuccoes made in 1899 by the sculptors Giuliano da Palazzolo and Senia da Noto.

New Iconography

A consultative committee for aesthetic excellence, set up by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and appointed by the National Department of Civil Protection, has commissioned contemporary national and international artists for the execution of the frescoes on the dome, the sketches for the realization some oil paintings for the altars of the transept and the sculptures to be placed in the niches of the side aisles. Twenty-six renowned artists competed in the new decorations. In order to take part in the competition for the decoration of the apsidal basin, some elements to be taken into consideration, relating to the sacred context and developed by Monsignor Carlo Chenis: the central presence of Christ Pantocrator, of the four doctors of the church, the saints Ambrogio, Chrysostom, Agostino, Gregorio Magno, the presence of the Madonna Scala del Paradiso, co-patron of Noto, and again Saint Corrado Confalonieri. The sketches were exhibited from 30 September to 27 November 2011 at Palazzo Grimani in Venice on the occasion of the 54th edition of the Biennale in an exhibition curated by Vittorio Sgarbi. Some of the selected projects were realized, while it was not possible to realize other important works, such as the large canvases of the transept for the disappearance of the eighty-sixth Maestro Ottavio Mazzonis.