Historical Premise
“Whoever leaves their heart in that land, with all their being desires to return, my land!” (Ibn Hamdis, a Sicilian-Arab poet who lived in Ancient Noto during his youth).
The city of Noto, the epicenter of a devastating earthquake that completely destroyed the ancient settlement, now appears as if frozen in time—an enormous “Garden of Stones” bearing witness to its glorious past before the catastrophe of 1693.
Ancient Noto, built on Mount Alveria and shaped by the succession of various dominations that settled there, was relocated 8 kilometers toward the coast to construct Baroque Noto—a masterpiece of the architects who rose from the ashes to create Sicily’s grandest urban theater.
