Historical centres: Caltagirone

68 km from Catania - alt. 600m -   3,806 ha - pop. 38,563

Its strategic position in controlling the Gela and Catania plains has encouraged settlement since prehistoric times (as confirmed by the necropolises of the Montagna and Angeli hamlets. Furthermore, the remains of an urban settlement from the sixth century BC have been identified in Monte San Mauro). The site made it a fortress in Arab and Norman times, when the city's great expansion took place. During Swabian domination its role as a commercial centre was confirmed over a huge area with the emergence of ceramic crafts. Evidence of the social prestige that this activity enjoyed is the existence of a " Ceramists' Brotherhood" with its headquarters in the Sant'Agata church (facade by N. Bonaiuto) and the beauty of some of the ceramists' buildings, such as Benedetto Ventimiglia's with its rich eighteenth century terrazza on Via Roma. The city developed round a cruciform plan (still identifiable) and is organized in neighbourhoods according to commercial and cultural groups (in Norman times groups from Genoa and Savona settled here and brought the cult of Saint George with them). In Caltagirone, too, the 1693 earthquake damaged part of the urban patrimony, but, thanks to the resources of the local élite, reconstruction was rapid and was carried out by prestigious architects (R. Gagliardi, N. Bonaiuto and then V. Marvuglia). Making use of famous artists (such as the Gagini family) was part of local tradition and was expressed again in the nineteenth century with the commission for the Villa Comunale going to Giovanni Battista Basile, and in our century when Luigi Sturzo, the famous Caltagirone politician, founder of the Partito Popolare ltaliano in 1919, called Ernesto Basile to work here. These efforts, however, have not prevented a process of partial degradation of the historic centre, a process that began as early as the 1800s with the movement of the new residential area towards the south. Given these factors, the number and the quality of the buildings here that testify to the city's urban prestige will not come as a surprise. Most importantly there are the churches (in 1816 Caltagirone became a diocese): San Giacomo (the city's patron), built in the Norman period, but rebuilt along with the other churches following the earthquake inside there are many works of art by Gian Domenico and Antonello Gagini and by F. Paladino; the Duomo (dedicated to San Giuliano), is also Norman in origin, but was rebuilt between the 1500s and 1600s (the facade was rebuilt at the beginning of this century); the Chiesa del Salvatore holds a statue attributed to Antonello Gagini and Sturzo's tomb; San Giorgio, built in 1030 by the Genoan colony, houses a Tavola (tableau) della Trinita, a masterpiece of the Flemish school; San Francesco di Paola with a 1625 lateral portal; San Francesco d'Assisi (1226), rebuilt by the Vaccaro brothers; del Gesù, with tableaux from the 1500s and a canvas by F. Paladino; Cappuccini Nuovi, with a ceiling from 1582, a 1604 triptych by F. Paladino and a gallery with paintings from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries; San Domenico, with a statue by Antonello Gagini; Santa Maria del Monte, rebuilt by F. Battaglia (the bell tower is by N. Bonaiuto after a design by Marvuglia), inside are sixteenth-century sculptures, paintings by the Vaccaro brothers and detailed work in gold. Less numerous, but no less important, are the secular buildings and town facilities. Among the former: Monte delle Prestanze (today occupied by the Banco di Sicilia), again by Bonaiuto (1783); the Corte Capitaneale decorated by Antonello and Domenico Gagini ( sixteenth- seventeenth centuries); the Palazzo Senatorio (today Galleria Sturzo); the Palazzo Municipale, formerly Bellaprima, with a Baroque facade; Palazzo Gravina, with decoration after the Gagini school (it houses a private collection of majolica). Among the latter: the Villa, the large public garden created in 1846 and then rearranged on a design by Basile in 1850 (inside is a large sixteenth-century fountain by Camillo Camilliani and a bandstand in a Moorish style with ceramic dressing); the stairway of Santa Maria del Monte, built in 1608 and recently dressed with ceramic tiles; the "Teatrino", a fine viewpoint over the city by N. Bonaiuto. Today it is the entrance to the city's most prestigious cultural institution, the Museo della Ceramica. Founded in 1965, it holds ceramic and terracotta work from prehistoric, Hellenistic, Roman, medieval and other epochs coming from Caltagirone and other pottery centres on the island. There are also works by Giacomo Bongiovanni and his young relative Giuseppe, two of the most important local craftsmen-cum-artists between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Among the other cultural institutions: the Istituto d'Arte della Ceramica, commissioned in 1918 by Sturzo; the Museo Civico in the former prison, with an archaeology section; the Museo Etnologico Siciliano (exhibits regarding peasant culture between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries), housed in the San Nicola church. In the surrounding area, apart from the archaeological sites mentioned earlier, there is the church of Santa Maria del Gesù from 1422, rebuilt by N. Bonaiuto and housing the marble statue of the Madonna della Catena by Antonello Gagini.

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