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Noto (; ) is a city and comune in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily, Italy. It is southwest of the city of Syracuse at the foot of the Hyblaean Mountains. It lends its name to the surrounding areaThe Val in Val di Noto is in Sicilian and in Italian language a grammatically masculine term, and it does not refer to a 'Valley' as is usual in Italian geographical names, which are although always grammatically feminine, but to one of the Provinces or Governorates into which Sicily was administratively divided under Arab rule and up until the 1812 administrative reform. The corresponding Arabic language term is wāli (والي), and the Sicilian val is akin to the Arab wilayah (ولاية) or the Turkish vilayet (ولايت), used as it would be a calque of the English term shire Val di Noto. In 2002 Noto and its church were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto - listing on UNESCO website
In 866, the Muslims conquered the city and named it Nawṭis, elevating it to the capital of one of Sicily’s three districts, the Val di Noto. It remained an important Islamic stronghold until 1091, when it became the last city in Sicily to fall to the Christians. Jordan of Hauteville, the eldest son of the first Norman Count of Sicily, was made lord of Noto. Under Normans rule, it later flourished as a wealthy and influential city.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the city was home to several notable intellectual figures, including Giovanni Aurispa, jurists Andrea Barbazio and Antonio Corsetto, architect Matteo Carnelivari, and composer Mario Capuana. In 1503 King Ferdinand III granted it the title of civitas ingeniosa ("Ingenious City"). In the following centuries, the city expanded, growing beyond its medieval limits, and new buildings, churches, and convents were built.
The medieval town of Noto was virtually razed by the 1693 Sicilian earthquake. Distinta relatione dello spauentoso eccidio cagionato da'terremoti ultimamente con replicate scosse, accaduto a 9 & 11 di Gennaro di 1693 Regno di Sicilia by Alessandro Burgos, Palermo and Naples, 1893. Over half the population is said to have died in the quake. Storia della città di Noto, by Salvatore Russo Ferruggia, Pappalardo publisher, 1838): page 66. It was decided to rebuild the town at the present site, on the left bank of the River Asinaro, closer to the Ionian shore. These circumstances have given Noto a unique architectural homogeneity, since the core of the town was built over the decades after the calamity in a typical and highly preserved example of Sicilian baroque. The layout followed a grid system by Giovanni Battista Landolina and utilized the sloping hillside for scenographic effects. The architects Rosario Gagliardi, Francesco Sortino, and others participated in designing multiple structures. The town was dubbed the "Stone Garden" by Cesare Brandi and is listed among UNESCO's World Heritage Sites. Many of the newer structures are built of a soft tufa stone, which assumes a honey tonality under sunlight. Parts of the cathedral unexpectedly collapsed in 1996.
The city, which lost its provincial capital status in 1817, rebelled against the House of Bourbon on 16 May 1860, leaving its gates open to Giuseppe Garibaldi and I Mille. On 21 October, a plebiscite sealed the annexation of Noto to Piedmont.
In 1844, Noto was named a diocese, but in 1866 it suffered the abolition of the religious guilds, which had been deeply linked to the city's structures and buildings.
Noto was freed from the fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini in July 1943 by British troops under General Bernard Montgomery as part of the opening phase of Operation Husky, the allied mission to liberate Sicily. The Notinesi people voted in favour of the Italian monarchy in the referendum of 1946.
Scenes from the 2015 film By the Sea (starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) were filmed in Noto.
About south of Noto, on the left bank of the Tellaro (Helorus) river, stands a stone column about high, which is believed to be a memorial to the surrender of Nicias. In the 3rd century BC, a tomb was excavated in the rectangular area around it, destroying an apparently preexisting tomb. Remnants of a later burial site belonging to the necropolis of the small town of Helorus, to the southeast, have been discovered. The Villa Romana del Tellaro is a Roman villa south of Noto.
The city has held an annual flower festival, the Infiorata, every May since the 1980s, lining the Corrado Nicolaci with floral mosaics.
One episode in the movie L'Avventura (1960) was shot in Noto and features views of its cathedral and square.
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