Chiesa di San Bartolomeo

The Church of San Bartolomeo stands within the limestone gorge of the same name in Scicli. Its three-tiered façade, completed in the early nineteenth century, rises above the rocky setting and reflects a transition from late Baroque to neoclassical design.

Why it matters

The church is closely tied to Scicli’s distinctive landscape, set within the cava di San Bartolomeo. The town forms part of the UNESCO-listed Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto, inscribed in 2002. Here, the church’s architecture is framed by the limestone gorge around it.

What to notice

The façade is arranged in three orders: Doric below, Ionic in the middle and Corinthian above, with a ribbed dome and bell cell at the top. Inside are works from different periods, including marble funerary monuments, Francesco Pascucci’s 1779 altarpiece of the Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew and stuccoes by Giovanni Gianforma. The church also holds a Nativity scene by Pietro Padula, dated to 1773–1776.

Context and history

The Comune records the first notices of a church on this site in the fifteenth century. The building was substantially remade in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The façade was begun by Antonio Mazza, reworked by Salvatore Alè and completed by P. Ventura in 1815; the small square and wrought-iron gate followed in 1822. Local accounts differ over the extent of damage in the 1693 earthquake and the date rebuilding began, so the precise sequence remains uncertain.