What to see in Scicli
Scicli: the Vigata of Andrea Camilleri
“The town of Scicli stands at the junction of three valleys, with houses on each side up the cliffs, a large square at the bottom straddling a fiumara, and ancient ecclesiastical buildings crowning in several places, like baroque acropolises, the semicircle of altitudes…” (Elio Vittorini, The Cities of the World).
Scicli, a delightful little town in the Ragusa area, with about 26,000 inhabitants, owes its charm to its location: in fact, as Elio Vittorini observes, it rises at the very point where the three narrow valleys, known as quarries, of Modica, Santa Maria La Nova and San Bartolomeo converge, opening into a vast plain that reaches the sea south of Modica and Ragusa.
Together with the other seven late Baroque towns of the Val di Noto, Scicli has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002 .
Origins: Historical Background
Human presence in the Scicli area, as attested by archaeological finds at the Grotta Maggiore site, dates back to a period between theCopper Age and the EarlyBronze Age.
The remains of a Greek settlement near the mouth of the Irminio River presuppose at least contacts with The Greeks, while in the 3rd cent. bc. Scicli, under Roman rule, became a decuman city, that is, subject to the tribute of the “tithe,” After the fall of the Western Roman Empire Scicli passed to the Byzantine , as attested by the late Byzantine settlement of the seventh century located at Castellaccio, and the probably Byzantine and medieval rock settlement at Chiafura, favored no doubt by the characteristic conformation of the territory with the presence of quarries and karst caves.
Not much is known about Scicli in the Arab period, while it is known that in 1091 the town came under the Norman rule of Roger of Altavilla.
Subsequently its history follows that of Sicily, so Scicli passed first under Angevin,ill-tolerated rule, then under Aragonese rule in which the county of Modica was formed.
Scicli was part of the county and followed its fortunes under the Mosca, Chiaramonte, Cabrera, and Enriquez-Cabrera families.
The Late Baroque Face of Scicli
Destroyed by the 1693 earthquake, in the following years the town was rebuilt in the late Baroque style that characterizes the buildings of the Val di Noto, which have become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
If you want to get to know and admire Scicli’s architectural jewels, a good idea is to take a walk along Via Mormino Penna, formerly Corso San Michele, in the heart of the historic center.
This pedestrian street of gilded basalt is considered one of the most beautiful streets in Sicily and represents the late Baroque heart of Scicli.
On this elegant and intimate street,in addition to souvenir stores and open-air restaurants, splendid churches and elegant buildings made of golden stone, the typical local stone, face each other as in an 18th-century fairy tale.
In a sumptuous parade, the church of St. Teresa, with its typical four-lobed window, and the church of St. Michael with its facade crossed by two Corinthian columns, both with adjoining convents, make a fine show.
Via Mormino Penna is home to the Palazzo Comunale, the famous Vigata police station in the successful film series of Commissario Montalbano, built in the 1900s in place of the Benedictine Monastery, and also the adjoining church of San Giovanni.
This is a marvel of Baroque art: its facade alternates concave and convex movements emphasized by double columns that, together with the staircase, give it momentum and grandeur.
The oval church houses the Crucifix of Burgos, a rare and fascinating painting of Spanish origin.
In this painting you can admire the body of Christ strangely covered, from the pelvis to the ankles, by a white robe, with clear references to a 14th-century wooden sculpture venerated in Spain in the mother church of Santa Maria de Burgos.
An evocative and refined charm exerts, along Via Mormino Penna, elegant late Baroque buildings such as Palazzo Spadaro, Palazzo Bonelli-Patanè and Palazzo Papaleo.
Another important stop on a visit to Scicli is undoubtedly Piazza Italia, the city’s largest and most important square, overlooked by the Mother Church.
This one, rebuilt after the earthquake, has a very elegant facade in its four statues and decorations with putto heads and leaf motifs embellishing the two orders.
The interior, with a basilica plan and three naves highly decorated with stucco and frescoes, houses the statue of Our Lady of the Militia who, according to legend, intervened with her white horse to help the Christians against the Saracens in the decisive battle of 1091.
On the last Saturday of May each year you can watch the re-enactment of the Battle of the Militia in a participatory folk festival with the participation of characters sporting splendid period costumes.
On that occasion you may moreover have the opportunity to taste the typical Sciclian turban-shaped cake, filled with custard or ricotta cheese, which goes by the name of “Turkish Head.”
Not far from the Mother Church, you can admire the most impressive and interesting civil architecture in town: the Beneventano Palace.
Rebuilt in the mid-18th cent.
is considered one of the most beautiful late Baroque palaces in Sicily, famous for its fantastic decorations.
The palace’s particular scenographic position gives prominence to the mighty cantonal that joins the two elevations, consisting of alternating smooth and diamond ashlars.
The elevations of the palace are decorated with exceptional masks in the shape of bull’s heads characterized by irreverent and frightening expressions.
The masks on the corbels supporting the balconies have the likenesses of aggressive fantastic animals. For the magnificence and abundance of its decorations Beneventano Palace deserves to be considered a masterpiece of late Baroque architecture.
Surroundings of Scicli
In addition to its peculiar late Baroque architectural heritage, Scicli is known for the rupestrian quarter of Chiafura characterized by rock-cut dwellings of rare beauty, in use until 1961 and reminiscent of the context of the Sassi of Matera.
Pasolini, who visited them in 1959 with Carlo Levi, Renato Guttuso and other intellectuals, described them in these words: “Above the last stone hovels of the town, one climbs a kind of mountain of purgatory, with circles one on top of the other, pierced by the holes of the doors of Saracen caves, where people have put a bed, sacred images or movie posters on the stone walls, and there they live huddled together, sometimes with a mule.”
To discover the events and cultural happenings that enliven Scicli, visit our page dedicated to Events in Scicli.
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