“a soft golden fleece magically thrown over the buildings’ façades”
by Francesco Mannuccia
Mineralogic-petrographic surveys and researches carried
out during a decade of interventions have revealed the presence of true
whitewashing and plastering with intentionally pigmented limewater.
No one monumental façade of Noto, whether stony or plastered,
escaped such a process that gave the city a Baroque setting.
Indeed restoration works of some façades – in particular
of the churches S.Carlo al Corso and S.Domencio, the Convent SS.Salvatore,
the palazzi Nicolaci Villadorata, Lanolina Santalfano and Impellizzeri
- have brought to light a reddish yellow “coat”. Its thickness
goes from 0.05 to 0.20 mm. and its composition is a heterogranular aggregate
of calcite where colour is determined by a ferruginous amorphous material.
Such technique was most probably aimed at giving the city and its façades
a chromatic unity.
We have grounds for thinking that the technique of whitewashing and
plastering with whitish limestone that characterized the Baroque architecture
of Noto was already in use in ancient Noto.
The technique was devised to contextualize the newly built structures
into a building and monumental ensemble whose reddish-yellow façades
had undergone long-lasting exposure to atmospheric agents.
To scientifically demonstrate such hypothesis, we’ll need systematic
surveys to assess the temporal and geographical extent of the phenomenon.
The necessity to preserve and enhance such a “building technique”
heritage, as an expression of a specific architectural language, has
already imprinted the goals and standards of the restoration works of
Noto’s façades.
