Sicilian Baroque

The Sicilian Baroque is a modification of the Baroque architectural style, which developed in Sicily in the 17th and 18th centuries. This style is characterized not only by the typical Baroque curves and flourishes, but also by features such as cherubs, the appearance of smiles and eye-catching jewelry.

Development

The Sicilian Baroque could develop only when entire cities and a variety of buildings destroyed by the earthquake in the Val di Noto in 1693 had to be rebuilt. Previously, the Baroque style was only to be found in a simple and highly circumcised manner since it was built by Sicilian architect and not by the great Baroque artists from Rome.

After the earthquake had a new generation of architects who had spent their apprenticeship in Rome, the opportunity to build buildings in a more advanced baroque style. The baroque architecture enjoyed time on the Italian mainland already very popular. The work that henceforth work, these architects in Sicily, led many other Sicilian architect, to follow their example. Already in 1730 the style was here to stay on the island. He had become a fixture in the Sicilian architecture, not without developing its own characteristics. Already fifty years later the Sicilian Baroque was, however, gradually replaced by a more modern style, classicism.

The golden age of Sicilian Baroque did not last quite fifty years reflected the social fabric of this period. The island was then officially under Spanish rule and was governed especially in the West of an aristocratic upper class. The people lived by agriculture.

The Sicilian Baroque architecture gives the country a special character. The Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002.

Features

The Baroque style is a European specialty that originated in the 17th century in Italy. He is highly ornate and playful in conjunction with sculptures and the so-called chiaroscuro effect, a deliberate play of light and shadow.

On the island of the Sicilian Baroque often limited only to churches or palace building of the aristocratic upper class. The first representatives of the Sicilian Baroque style were a standalone miss greatly and were basically just copies of buildings in Rome, Florence and Naples. Nevertheless, the Sicilian architects had begun already in this early stage of development to incorporate typical local features of past architectural style in the new style with. In the mid-18th century, when the Sicilian Baroque already differed greatly from the Italian Baroque, he had the following characteristics:

Masks and putti

They are commonly found on balconies, crown moldings or columns. This usually radiant or laughing faces dating back to the Sicilian architecture of the 17th century.

Balconies

They were often provided after 1633 with wrought iron railings. Initially, it was this railing not used for balconies.

Stairways outside

Most villas and palaces were built so that they could be accessed via an external nearby archway. This archway leading to the courtyard of the building. There, they found a double staircase that leads up from the courtyard to the Piano Nobile led. In this way, one could reach the first floor of the palazzo. The symmetrical staircase wing squirm while four times both internally and externally. The elevated position of churches made ​​it often necessary to build a staircase with many steps. We used this long stretched marble steps, similar to the Spanish Steps in Rome.

Curved facades

Sloping inwardly or outwardly curved facades are another typical feature. Occasionally you can also find villas or palaces, in which a staircase has been fitted into the facade corners so incurred.

Bell towers

Bell towers were not, as usual, built in Italy beside the church, but directly to the church. It also did not hide the bells in the tower, but they showed open and integrated them into the facade. It emerged both churches with a bell (eg in the Collegiate Catania ) and churches with more bells that were hung within a small row of arcades (eg, the Chiesa di San Giuseppe in Ragusa Ibla ).

Marble inlay

One finds in churches often inlaid marble on walls and floors. Also, this particular type of inlay developed only in Sicily since the 17th century.

They carry the arches of the façade and are often individually. They date back to the much more sober Norman style, which was previously found in Sicily. Rows of columns is rarely found in Sicily, just as in the rest of Europe.

Carved stone surfaces

Since the end of the 16th century Sicilian architect ornate stone surfaces with reliefs of leaves, fish scales and even sweets and shells. Just shells were later to popular decorative element of the Baroque style. Sometimes, these ornaments are mounted not only at home but also on columns.

Lava stone

The locally occurring lava stone was used for the construction of many Sicilian Baroque buildings, because he was present abundantly. The black or gray inclusions in the rock were the ornament and underline the attention of the Baroque of light and shadow.

Spanish influence

The influence of Spanish rule shaped the design of the architectural style significantly, although not as strong as before the Norman rule. The Spanish style, a little less expensive edition of the French Renaissance style, is to be found especially in the eastern part of Sicily. There the resistance against Spanish rule was the lowest, which ultimately was also due to the high military presence. Messina imposing Porta Grazia built, in 1680, marked the entrance to a Spanish citadel. The extremely ornate architectural style of this city gate was in the whole area around Catania after the earthquake to the current style.

Summary

All these features come never simultaneously on the same building. Individually, they also highlight any particular Baroque style, but only the unique blend of these features gives the Sicilian Baroque. Other features such as arches above windows and doors, and installation of unusual statues can be found throughout Europe, but are not a special feature of Sicilian Baroque architecture dar.

Renowned architects

Swell

  • This article is a translation of the article en: Sicilian Baroque in the version of 7 May 2007 and was partly supplemented.
  • Nikolaus Pevsner, Hugh Honour, John Fleming: Encyclopedia of world architecture. Second, expanded edition. Prestel, Munich, 1987, ISBN 3-7913-0652-9.
  • Architectural style (Baroque)
  • Visual Arts ( Sicily)
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