Information AboutNoto |
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| municipalities of the province of syracuse | |
| sicilian baroque | |
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Noto is a city of Sicily , Italy , in the province of Syracuse , 32 km southwest of it, at the feet of Iblei Mountains . The city gives its name to the surrounding valley, Val Di Noto . HISTORY The older town, Noto Antica, lies 5 miles direct to the north (1378 feet) on Mount Alveria . It was the ancient ''Netum'', a city of Sicel origin, left to Hiero II by the Romans by the treaty of 263 BC and mentioned by Cicero as a ''foederala citilas'' (''Verr.'' v. 51, 133), and by Pliny as ''Latinae conditionis'' (''Hist. Nat.'' iii. 8. 14). According to the legend, Dedalus stopped here after his flight over the Ionian Sea , as well as Hercules , after his seventh task. The remains of this city are almost entirely hidden beneath the ruins of the medieval town, except three chambers cut in the rock, one of which is shown, by an inscription in the library at Noto, to have belonged to the gymnasium, while the other two were ''heroa'', or shrines of heroes. But explorations have brought to light four cemeteries of the third Sicel period, and one of the Greek period, of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. There are also catacombs of the Christian period and some Byzantine tombs. In the Roman age it opposed praetor Verres . In 866 it was conquered by the Arab s, who elevated it as capital city of one of three districts of the island (the Val di Noto). Later it was a rich Norman city. In the king Ferdinand III gave it the title of ''civitas ingeniosa'' ("ingenious city"). In the following centuries the city expanded enlarging its medieval limits, and new edificies, churches and convents were built. These, however, were all totally destroyed by the Earthquake of January 11 , 1693 . The devastation of the city onthe Alveria Mount was accompanied by that of the economy, which relied mainly on the agricultural produces (vine, oil, cereals, rice, cotton) and a renowned handicraft. The present town, rebuilt after the earthquake on the left bank of River Asinaro, was planned on a grid system by Giovanni Battista Landolina . The new city occupied a position nearer to the Ionian Sea. The presence of architects like Rosario Gagliardi , Francesco Sortino and others, made the new Noto a masterpiece of Sicilian Baroque , dubbed ''Stone Garden'' by Cesare Brandi and currently listed among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites . The new edifices are characterized by a soft tufa stone which under the sun action has assumed a typical honey tonality. The city, which had lost its provincial capital status in 1817 , rebelled against the House Of Bourbon on May 16 , 1860 , leaving its gates open to Giuseppe Garibaldi and his Expedition . On October 21 of the same year a plebiscite signed the annexion of Noto to the Piedmont . In 1844 Noto was named a bishopric seat, but suffered in 1866 the abolition of the religious guilds, which were deeply linked to the city's structure and edifices. Not was freed from the fascist dictature in the July of 1943 . At the referendum of 1946 , the Notinesi voted in favour of the monarchy. MAIN MONUMENTS Noto is famous for its fine buildings of the early 18th Century , considered among the main masterpieces in the Sicilian Baroque style. Palaces and other buildings
Religious buildings
Archaeological finds Four miles to the south of Noto, on the left bank of the Tellaro (Helorus) (E Pais, Atakia, Pisa, 1891, p. 75 seq.) stands a stone column about 10 m (35 ft) in height, which is believed to be a memorial of the surrender of Nicias . This is uncertain; but, in any case, in the 3rd Century BC a tomb was excavated in the rectangular area which surrounds it, destroying apparently a pre-existing tomb. The later burial belongs to the necropolis of the small town of Heloron, 750 m to the southeast, some remains of which have been discovered. It was a small advanced post of Syracuse, belonging probably to the 6th Century BC . CULTURE In the Noto neighbourhood a 32 m-antenna Radiotelescope was installed by the Istituto Di Radioastronomia Di Bologna , part of CNR . It works in collaboration with a similar instrument in Medicina , Province Of Bologna . REFERENCES |
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