Noto rebuilt itself from nothing after the earthquake of 1693 flattened the old hill town, and this cathedral, dedicated to San Nicolò, crowns the new grid in the same honey-colored limestone as everything around it, reached by a broad staircase that turns the whole piazza into a stage.
The building looks Baroque and solid but has failed once: heavy rain and shoddy nineteenth-century repairs brought the dome down in March 1996, destroying the nave beneath it. Restorers spent over a decade putting it back stone by stone, reopening in 2007 with the silver reliquary of San Corrado, Noto's patron saint, returned to the high altar. Pope Benedict XVI made it a minor basilica in 2012. At sunset the facade turns the color of the quarry it came from.
Sources and citations (3)
- Città di NotoCattedrale di San NicolòIdentity and dedicationRead source
- UNESCO World Heritage CentreLate Baroque Towns of the Val di NotoNoto town component and inscription dataRead source
- Catalogo Generale dei Beni CulturaliNoto: Cattedrale San NicolòProject attribution discussionRead source
