Description
The Monastery of San Nicolò l'Arena, in Piazza Dante in Catania, is an enormous 18th-century Benedictine complex with a monumental church beside it. It measures about 210 by 130 meters and is considered the second-largest Benedictine monastery in Europe, after the one at Mafra in Portugal. Today it houses the University's Department of Humanities.
The best way to visit is to get lost among its spaces, choosing between the great cloisters, the halls and the church. Since 2002 it has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing of the late Baroque of the Val di Noto in Sicily, and the university's restoration is the work of Giancarlo De Carlo.
Inside, the Marble Cloister, or western cloister, has white marble columns from 1608 and a monumental 17th-century fountain. In the basement you can see a Roman domus with 2nd-century mosaics, beneath the library, and the great refectory is so tall it looks like a church.
The church is the largest in Sicily: Latin-cross plan, three aisles, a dome 62 meters high inside, designed by Stefano Ittar and completed in 1780. The exterior tells a different story: the facade was never finished, and the columns were left half done.
In the transept, set into the floor, runs the meridian line, about 40 meters long, laid out by the astronomers Sartorius and Peters, with zodiac signs by the sculptor Thorvaldsen; it was completed in 1841. The great organ by Donato Del Piano, inaugurated in 1767, could be played by three organists at once.
The monks came from Etna. Their first monastery was at Nicolosi, amid the red volcanic sand (arena) that gave it its name. In the 16th century, tired of bandits and eruptions, they asked to move inside the city walls, bringing a much-venerated relic: the Holy Nail of the Cross.
The volcano was not done with them. In 1669 the lava lapped at the walls and a tongue of fire destroyed the church; in 1693 the earthquake brought the monastery down, and only three monks survived.
The reconstruction took a century, with architects such as Giovanni Battista Vaccarini. The ground floor was raised up to the lava bank of 1669, about twelve meters high. In 1866 the State confiscated everything: the monastery was a barracks, a school, an observatory; since 1977 it has belonged to the University.
In 1773 the traveler Patrick Brydone called it the "Versailles of Sicily."
Don't miss
• The Marble Cloister.
• The Roman domus in the basement.
• The great refectory.
• The church's meridian line.
Did you know?
• The meridian was said to "split the second."
• Del Piano's organ has 2,378 pipes.
• The refectory has a central carpet of hand-painted Sicilian majolica tiles.
The best way to visit is to get lost among its spaces, choosing between the great cloisters, the halls and the church. Since 2002 it has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing of the late Baroque of the Val di Noto in Sicily, and the university's restoration is the work of Giancarlo De Carlo.
Inside, the Marble Cloister, or western cloister, has white marble columns from 1608 and a monumental 17th-century fountain. In the basement you can see a Roman domus with 2nd-century mosaics, beneath the library, and the great refectory is so tall it looks like a church.
The church is the largest in Sicily: Latin-cross plan, three aisles, a dome 62 meters high inside, designed by Stefano Ittar and completed in 1780. The exterior tells a different story: the facade was never finished, and the columns were left half done.
In the transept, set into the floor, runs the meridian line, about 40 meters long, laid out by the astronomers Sartorius and Peters, with zodiac signs by the sculptor Thorvaldsen; it was completed in 1841. The great organ by Donato Del Piano, inaugurated in 1767, could be played by three organists at once.
The monks came from Etna. Their first monastery was at Nicolosi, amid the red volcanic sand (arena) that gave it its name. In the 16th century, tired of bandits and eruptions, they asked to move inside the city walls, bringing a much-venerated relic: the Holy Nail of the Cross.
The volcano was not done with them. In 1669 the lava lapped at the walls and a tongue of fire destroyed the church; in 1693 the earthquake brought the monastery down, and only three monks survived.
The reconstruction took a century, with architects such as Giovanni Battista Vaccarini. The ground floor was raised up to the lava bank of 1669, about twelve meters high. In 1866 the State confiscated everything: the monastery was a barracks, a school, an observatory; since 1977 it has belonged to the University.
In 1773 the traveler Patrick Brydone called it the "Versailles of Sicily."
Don't miss
• The Marble Cloister.
• The Roman domus in the basement.
• The great refectory.
• The church's meridian line.
Did you know?
• The meridian was said to "split the second."
• Del Piano's organ has 2,378 pipes.
• The refectory has a central carpet of hand-painted Sicilian majolica tiles.