“Take a greek temple, incorporate it in full in a Christian building, to which you add later a Norman façade that is struck by the great earthquake of 1693. Without discouraging you, and put back to work, completely changing direction, replace the old facade with a delicious Baroque composition of roughly 1728-54. And the whole thing, as it deteriorated, continues to live and smile, spreading around the world his image as if it were designed by a Leonardo or a Michelangelo ‘”
(Lawrence Durrell speaks of the Cathedral of Syracuse)

The cathedral of Syracuse, the city’s cathedral, located on the elevated part of Siracusa, incorporating what was the sacred temple in Doric style more important than the polis Syracuse, dedicated to Athena (Minerva) and converted into a church with the advent of Christianity. He was dedicated to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Considered the most important church in the city of Syracuse, it became part of the property protected by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. His style is mainly outside the Baroque and Rococo, while inside it alternates parts dating back to the Sicilians, as belonging to the temple and greek parts dating back to medieval times, built by the Byzantines to the seventeenth century and thus leave it up to the present day . Its internal structure is composed of several naves and chapels, which have a classic style and decorated, also typical of the Baroque.

Of great religious significance, it holds statues, relics and remains of saints, martyrs and noble Syracuse. Its furnishings have seen a succession of artists from all over Italy and abroad. A symbol of the religiosity of Syracuse, the cathedral through the various historical and cultural city.