Page 372 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

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Noto

Some 32km southwest of Siracusa, the exquisite town of NOTO represents the apogee
of the wholesale renovation that took place following the cataclysm of 1693, a
monument to the achievement of a few architects and planners whose vision coincided
with the golden age of Baroque architecture. Although a town called Noto, or Netum,
has existed in this area for centuries, what you see today is in effect a “New Town”,
conceived as a triumphant symbol of renewal. The fragile Iblean limestone used in its

construction was grievously damaged by modern pollution, but years of restoration
work have gradually shaken off the grime and most of the harmonious buildings have
regained their original honey-hued facades. Some characterful B&B accommodation,
and traffic-free old-town streets that are at their most charming as the lights come on at
dusk make this one of the island’s essential stopovers.

Brief history

Noto was flattened by the earthquake on January 11, 1693, and a week later its
rebuilding was entrusted to a Sicilian-Spanish aristocrat, Giuseppe Lanza, Duke of
Camastra, on the strength of his work at the town of Santo Stefano di Camastra, on the

Tyrrhenian coast. Lanza visited the ruins, saw nothing but “un monton de piedras
abandonadas” (a mountain of forsaken rocks), and quickly decided to start afresh, on
a new site 16km to the south. In fact, the ruins weren’t abandoned; the city’s battered
population was already improvising a shantytown, and even held a referendum when
Lanza’s intentions became known, rejecting the call to relocate their city. But partly
motivated by the prestige of the undertaking, partly by the need to refurbish the area’s
defences, Lanza ignored the local feeling, even pulling down their new constructions

and the old town’s remaining church.