Ancient Noto

the ancient Noto ( the town before the earthquake of the 1693) The ancient town, situated on the headland Alveria, keeps the remains of the fortified town, apart from an hermitage, the Hellenistic gymnasium, the handcrafted and rocky installations for the tanning (XV° – XVI° th A.D.) and the Hebraic and paleo – Christian necropolis.

On the 11th of January 1693 a huge earthquake destroyed at least 45 cities, affecting an area of 5600 square kilometres and causing the death of more than 60 000 people - about half of the population of the South-East of Sicily. Hardest hit was Catania, where 2/3rds of the population lost their life.

This was one of the biggest earthquakes to hit Italy alongside the 1908 earthquake of Messina.