Visit of Noto

In a region with an abundance of olive and almond trees, Noto is a small baroque jewel perched on a plateau overlooking the valley Asinaro citrus.
Her beauty, so harmonious to seem a fiction, the scene of a theater, was born from a tragic event: the earthquake of 1693, which in this part of Sicily brought death, destruction, but gave impetus to reconstruction. Before that the city rose to 10 km away.
Extremely ancient origins, Noto gave birth to Ducezio, who in the fifth century. B.C. He shook the Greeks for having angered the Sicilians against them.
The 1693 earthquake destroyed the city completely. For the reconstruction is chosen a less steep and broader, allowing the construction of a simple, linear, with intersections at right angles and parallel roads and expand as it wants the new baroque style. Three main roads running east to west because the sun always enlighten.
Three walks of life who are established: the first, higher, are destined for nobility, the central clergy (the only exception is the building of secular Landolina), the last of the people.
The buildings are magnificent, all built in the local limestone, soft and compact, the candor that time has colored creating that magnificent golden tint and pinkish light that accentuates the sunset, this reconstruction, led by the Duke of Camastra, the representative in Noto Spanish viceroy, participating in many Sicilian artists, including Paul Labisi, Vincenzo Sinatra and Rosario Gagliardi, who, influenced by Borromini, is perhaps one of the most inventive.
The city is built as if it were a stage, studying and making up the perspective in a unique way, playing with the lines and curves of the facades with decorations shelves, curls and spirals, the gargoyles, cherubs, from the balconies wrought iron railings, which folds in graceful shapes and bulging.
Creating Original c local masters. Known in the landscape that still fits the hand of the Italian Artisi sees the dream baroque flourish throughout Europe and giving birth to the new Russian capital, St. Petersburg.