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Cathedral Of Syracuse
The Cathedral of Syracuse (''Duomo di Siracusa''), formally the (Metropolitan Cathedral of the Most Holy Nativity of Mary), is an ancient Catholic church in Syracuse, Sicily, the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Siracusa, Catholic Archdiocese of Siracusa. Its structure is originally a Greek Doric order, doric temple, and for this reason it is included in a UNESCO World Heritage Site designated in 2005. The cathedral stands in the city's historic core on Ortygia Island. History The origins of a temple on this site date to prehistory. The great Greek Temple of Athena (Syracuse), Temple of Athena was built in the 6th century BC [590–580 BCE] . The temple was a Doric columns, Doric edifice with six columns on the short sides and 14 on the long sides. Plato and Athenaeus mention the temple, and the looting of its ornament is mentioned by Cicero, in 70 BC, as one of the crimes of the governor Verres. Archeological site excavations by Paolo Orsi in 1907–1910 show the Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions and has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilization.Gerald O'Collins, O'Collins, p. v (preface). The church consists of 24 Catholic particular churches and liturgical rites#Churches, ''sui iuris'' (autonomous) churches, including the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, which comprise almost 3,500 dioceses and Eparchy, eparchies List of Catholic dioceses (structured view), around the world, each overseen by one or more Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishops. The pope, who is the bishop of Rome, is the Papal supremacy, chief pastor of the church. The core beliefs of Catholicism are found in the Nicene Creed. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire. His extensive writings include treatises on rhetoric, philosophy and politics. He is considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists and the innovator of what became known as "Ciceronian rhetoric". Cicero was educated in Rome and in Greece. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order, and served as consul in 63 BC. He greatly influenced both ancient and modern reception of the Latin language. A substantial part of his work has survived, and he was admired by both ancient and modern authors alike. Cicero adapted the arguments of the chief schools of Hellenistic philosophy in Latin and coined a large portion of Latin philosophical vocabulary via ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luigi Vanvitelli
Luigi Vanvitelli (; 12 May 1700 – 1 March 1773), known in Dutch as (), was an Italian architect and painter. The most prominent 18th-century architect of Italy, he practised a sober classicising academic Late Baroque style that made an easy transition to Neoclassicism. Biography Early years and education Vanvitelli was born in Naples, the son of an Italian woman, Anna Lorenzani, and a Dutch painter of land and cityscapes (''veduta''), Caspar van Wittel, who also used the name Vanvitelli. Luigi began his career as a history painter, and from 1724 he was employed as a copyist in the fabbrica of St Peter’s in Rome. The extent of his academic training is not clear, but under Antonio Valeri (1648–1736), who succeeded Carlo Fontana as architetto soprastante, Vanvitelli discovered his talent as an architect. Ultimately, however, Valeri was a less significant influence on his work than Fontana or Filippo Juvarra. His first patron was the prefect Cardinal Annibale Albani. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ciborium (architecture)
In Church architecture, ecclesiastical architecture, a ciborium (Greek language, Greek: κιβώριον; ) is a canopy or covering supported by columns, freestanding in the sanctuary, that stands over and covers the altar in a church architecture, church. It may also be known by the more general term of baldachin, though ''ciborium'' is often considered more correct for examples in churches. A baldachin (originally an exotic type of silk from Baghdad) should have a textile covering, or, as at St. Peter’s Basilica, Saint Peter’s in Rome, imitate one. There are exceptions; St. Peter's Baldachin, Bernini's structure in Saint Peter's, Rome is always called the baldachin. Early ciboria had curtains hanging from rods between the columns, so that the altar could be concealed from the congregation at points in the liturgy. Smaller examples may cover other objects in a church. In a very large church, a ciborium is an effective way of visually highlighting the altar, and emphasizin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ignazio Marabitti
Ignazio Marabitti (6 September 1719La Sicilia nel secolo XVIII e la poesia satiricoburlesca By Giuseppe Leanti, page 163. in Palermo – 1797 in Palermo) was a Sicilian sculptor of the late Baroque period. He trained in Rome in the studio of Filippo della Valle, head of the Accademia di San Luca, but was mainly active in Sicily, where his works can be found in Siracusa, Caltanisetta, Catania, Messina, and Palermo. Among his notable works is the Fontana del Genio a Villa Giulia, and statues on the facades of the Cathedral of Syracuse and the Cathedral of Palermo. References * 1719 births 1797 deaths 18th-century Italian sculptors Italian male sculptors Artists from Palermo 18th-century Italian male artists Artists from the Kingdom of Sicily {{Italy-sculptor-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acanthus (ornament)
The acanthus () is one of the most common plant forms to make foliage ornament and decoration in the architectural tradition emanating from Greece and Rome. Architecture In architecture, an ornament (art), ornament may be carved into stone or wood to resemble leaves from the Mediterranean species of the ''Acanthus (plant), Acanthus'' genus of plants, which have deeply cut leaves with some similarity to those of the thistle and poppy. Both ''Acanthus mollis'' and the still more deeply cut ''Acanthus spinosus'' have been claimed as the main model, and particular examples of the motif may be closer in form to one or the other species; the leaves of both are, in any case, rather variable in form. The motif is found in decoration in nearly every medium. The relationship between acanthus ornament and the acanthus plant has been the subject of a long-standing controversy. Alois Riegl argued in his ''Stilfragen'' that acanthus ornament originated as a sculptural version of the palmette, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corinthian Column
The Corinthian order (, ''Korinthiakós rythmós''; ) is the last developed and most ornate of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order, which was the earliest, followed by the Ionic order. In Ancient Greek architecture, the Corinthian order follows the Ionic in almost all respects, other than the capitals of the columns, though this changed in Roman architecture. A Corinthian capital may be seen as an enriched development of the Ionic capital, though one may have to look closely at a Corinthian capital to see the Ionic volutes ("helices"), at the corners, perhaps reduced in size and importance, scrolling out above the two ranks of stylized acanthus leaves and stalks ("cauliculi" or ''caulicoles''), eight in all, and to notice that smaller volutes scroll inwards to meet each other on each side. The leaves may be quite stiff, schematic and dry, or they may be extravagantly drilled and undercut, n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrea Palma (architect)
Andrea Palma (b. Trapani, 1644 or 1664 – d. 1730) was an 18th-century Italian architect, working in the Baroque style. He is credited with being one of the most notable architects of the Sicilian Baroque movement. His works include the Cathedral of Syracuse The Cathedral of Syracuse (''Duomo di Siracusa''), formally the (Metropolitan Cathedral of the Most Holy Nativity of Mary), is an ancient Catholic church in Syracuse, Sicily, the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Siracusa, Catholic Archd ..., which was recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Other works by Palma include "Chiesa di Santa Maria di Montevergini", and the Chiesa di San Gioacchino, whose baroque facade he designed in the early 18th century. References Architects from Palermo Architects of the Sicilian Baroque 18th-century Italian people 17th-century births 1730 deaths {{Italy-architect-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1693 Sicily Earthquake
The 1693 Sicily earthquake was a natural disaster that struck parts of southern Italy near Sicily, then a territory part of the Crown of Aragon by the Kings of Spain Calabria and Malta, on 11 January at around 21:00 local time. This earthquake was preceded by a damaging foreshock on 9 January. The main quake had an estimated magnitude of 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, the most powerful in recorded Italian history, and a maximum intensity of XI (''Extreme'') on the Mercalli intensity scale, destroying at least 70 towns and cities, seriously affecting an area of and causing the death of about 60,000 people. The earthquake was followed by a number of tsunamis that devastated the coastal villages on the Ionian Sea and in the Straits of Messina. Almost two-thirds of the entire population of Catania were killed. The Epicenter, epicentre of the disaster was probably close to the coast, possibly offshore, although the exact position remains unknown. The extent and level of destruction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Syracuse (1086)
In 1086, following a naval battle, the Islamo-Sicilian city of Syracuse was blockaded by sea and besieged by land from May to October by the forces of the Norman county of Sicily. Following the death and flight of its leaders, the city surrendered. The main source for the siege, the Norman historian Geoffrey Malaterra, dates it to 1085, but modern historians believes this to be a mistake for 1086. The campaign had a religious character, being conceived in response to outrages perpetrated against churches and nuns and pitting Christians against Muslims. Background In 1081, Benavert, the emir of Syracuse, acquired control of the city of Catania, displacing its emir. The city was soon conquered, however, by Jordan, the son of Count Roger I of Sicily.Valerie Eads"Syracuse, Siege of" in Clifford J. Rogers (ed.), ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology'' (Oxford University Press, 2010). In the summer of 1084, Benavert launched a raid on Calabria. At Nic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger I Of Sicily
Roger I (; ; ; Norse: ''Rogeirr''; 1031 – 22 June 1101), nicknamed "Roger Bosso" and "Grand Count Roger", was a Norman nobleman who became the first Grand Count of Sicily from 1071 to 1101. As a member of the House of Hauteville, he participated in several military expeditions against the Emirate of Sicily (beginning in 1061). He was later invested with part of Sicily by his brother, Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia, in 1071. By 1090, he had conquered the entire island. In 1091, he conquered Malta. The state he created was merged with the Duchy of Apulia in 1127 and became the Kingdom of Sicily in 1130. His descendants in the male line continued to rule Sicily down to 1194. Early life Roger was born in Normandy, probably in the village of Hauteville-la-Guichard, of which his father was ''seigneur''. He was the youngest son of Tancred de Hauteville and his second wife Fressenda. Through his mother he was possibly grandson of Richard the Fearless. Little is known abou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cathedral
A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations with an episcopal hierarchy, such as the Catholic Church, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicanism, Anglican, and some Lutheranism, Lutheran churches.''New Standard Encyclopedia'', 1998 by Standard Educational Corporation, Chicago, Illinois; page B-262c. Church buildings embodying the functions of a cathedral first appeared in Italy, Gaul, Spain, and North Africa in the 4th century, but cathedrals did not become universal within the Western Catholic Church until the 12th century, by which time they had developed architectural forms, institutional structures, and legal identities distinct from parish churches, monastery, monastic churches, and episcopal residences. The cathedra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
