The town of Noto is one of the Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto (South-Eastern Sicily), inscribed since 2002 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
A hill town standing at an elevation of 152 metres Noto is famed for its many churches, the highlight of which is the 18th century Cathedral built in the Sicilian Baroque style and using the local Iblean limestone.
The stone is used for many of Noto’s buildings, giving it such a glow that it appears as a city of gold. Its first name was Neas.
It was founded by Sican populations, at the time of the fall of Troy, on the Mendola hill. Falling into the hands of the Syracuse conquerors, the town assimilated Hellenic customs and rites, and was elevated to the gymnasium.
It passed under Roman rule, as a federated city. In the imperial era, it was declared a Latin municipium, a unique condition that brought the town considerable privileges, including the right to govern itself with its own laws.
Conquered by the Arabs, who made it a highly armed stronghold, it took its present name and was the capital of one of the three valleys into which they subdivided Sicily. After two centuries of Muslim rule, in 1090, Noto negotiated surrender with Roger.
The history of Noto, however, has been made by men and by nature. In 1693, it was, in fact, destroyed by the earthquake that strucked the whole of south-western Sicily.
Designed as a large theatre without wings, it was conceived as a free and open city lively and continuous. Noto is sumptuous and superb, on the slope of the Meti hill, to the southern slopes of the Hyblaean mountains. The architectural history of the new city is dominated by the artistic inspiration of three architects, Rosario Gagliardi, Vincenzo Sinatra and Paolo Labisi.
These three architects succeeded in developing an amazing masterpiece of architectural unity. Three different personalities who, while living and working in the province, bestowed an original mark onto the city which goes beyond the rigid Baroque language.
They enriched it with elements of the Renaissance and neoclassical pseudo-Spanish elements, creating an imaginative and dreamlike style.
