Tracce del XIV secolo nella cattedrale normanna di Catania

The study of XIV century architecture in Catania is a complex challenge for the researcher, who has to deal with an extremely fragmented heritage, with a profoundly modified urban structure, and with few written sources. The dramatic earthquake of 1693 represents a decisive break in the city’s history. Catania was completely rebuilt in the XIX century. The few surviving traces of the past have been partially saved, sometimes re-functionalized or incorporated into new structures. Only combining these scattered traces is possible to try and reconstruct a context, in dialogue with written and figurative sources. The XIV century portions of the Cathedral, the remains of the Abbey of Nuovaluce and of lay and religious private buildings, the microarchitectures incorporated into new buildings (like the Arch in the Via Cestai) will be discussed in a three-parts essay which aims to combine together the efforts of three researchers who, with different but complementary methodological approaches, are engaged in the ideal reconstruction of the Medieval Catania.