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The splendours of the Baroque

Dominated by the imposing San Matteo church and the remains of the castle of the ancient town, Scicli extends in the plateau below, at the confluence of some gullies that, with the sinuosity of their configuration and the fascinating rock walls around, trace out the ideal place for a town among the most attractive in all Sicily. It is not by chance that Scicli was the town dear to the heart and dreams of Ello Vittorini. Rich in history, art and traditions, the town dates back to the Siculi, from whom it almost certainly took its name, but it preserves vestiges of the Greek age, the Roman one and other later ones.

From the medieval period there comes down the legendary recollection of the clash between Normans and Saracens, which took place in the Milici area in 1091. Later Scicli, under the Aragonese, was part of Modica county.

The countless artistic monuments in Scicli mostly date back to the eighteenth century, when the town was rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake. In the old part there are magnificent churches and splendid mansions in the Baroque style. Among the churches we must mention the new cathedral church, dedicated to St. Ignatius, in which, among other works of art, there is the statue of the Madonna delle Milizie on horseback and the ark of San Guglielmo of Scicli. From the fifteenth century there dates the San Bartolomeo church, the only one that withstood the 1693 earthquake; inside it there is a precious wooden crib, which dates from the fifteenth century and is one of the oldest in Sicily.

We must mention the San Giovanni, Santa Teresa, Carmine, Santa Maria La Nova, Consolazione and Rosario churches. A historical mention must be made of the Croce church, in whose oratory there are fine fifteenth-century frescos, some of which are votive offerings illustrating miracles performed by Santa Maria della Croce and have legends in ancient Sicilian, thus constituting a precious linguistic document. Non-religious architectura is also rich in artistic monuments, among which we must mention Palazzo Beneventano, Palazzo Fava and Palazzo Spadaro. The painter Piero Guccione has gone back to live and work at Scicli.

Regarding Palazzo Beneventano, the most attentive art historians have often pointed out the grotesque tone of the figures and the ornamental fantasy, mostly concentrated in the ledges and the corner piece. By contrast, very little is known about the building history of the edifice, Inductively, and referring above all to the mixtilinear portals and the recherch form of the balconies, we can date the construction from the second half of the eighteenth century. Also not yet clarified are the meanings of the imagery, which draws on the repertory of late sixteenth-century production; it includes monstrous figures and moors’ heads, in the crowns of the little portals, and hybrid and changing faces in the ledges.

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