Going for Baroque in Sicily

In 1693 an enormous earthquake hammered the island of sicily. 60 000 souls lost their lives and dozens of towns and cities were levelled. over the next half century or so, sicily didn’t just rebuild in a hurry and flurry, they went totally bananas for baroque.

I’ll be honest, I was never a huge fan of the Baroque style—more naturally drawn was I to the calming classical order and symmetry of the Renaissance period (roughly 1400-1600) which preceded it. All of this changed after spending a few weeks in Sicily.

Given it’s reputation as a simple place with a long history of hardscrabble living I was surprised to find such elegant, expressive, and theatrical architecture. It seems the handful of extraordinarily wealthy landowners who effectively controlled the island throughout the 17th and 18th centuries were able to build whatever they damn well pleased. And Baroque, already an established style across Europe and in Italy, France, and Central Europe, clearly tickled their aesthetic sensibilities.

Keen to flex some regional muscle, the Sicilians took the already ebullient curves and twists of the Baroque style and added an extra sense of flourish and fanfare. Elaborate wrought iron balustrades were introduced, fanciful figures and playful putti (aka chubby children, often winged) were plunked in the centre of broken pediments, columns were clustered, and stone details were chipped and chiselled to express a dramatic contrast of light and shadow. It was almost over the top, but somehow seemed to stop just short of being silly (that honour goes to Rococo, an understandable evolution of the late Baroque period).

Even now, almost 300 years later, Sicily’s Baroque architecture carries a remarkable melody. It belts out a visual opera that reminds everyone visiting the island what a remarkable life this sun-soaked land has lived.