The Sicilian Baroque: reconciling postquake tensions

Building upon discourses on trauma, art, and architecture, this work examines how the design and construction of buildings mediate the cultural, social, and political changes that occur after a catastrophe. It takes as its case study the reconstruction of Sicily's Val di Noto following an earthquake in 1693 and the role that the Baroque architectural style played in it. In this study, Sicilian Baroque building decoration emerges as a medium that facilitated the reconciliation of tensions that inhered among survivors of the earthquake and their social and material milieus.