Fireworks explode over the Piazza del Duomo in the center of Catania during final procession of the candelabras to the Cathedral of St. Agatha.
In February of 2003, I was nearing the end of my 6 month backpack through Europe. I decided to drop down to Sicily briefly before flying home from Rome at the end of the month. I happened to arrived in Catania on the day of the closing ceremony of the Saint Agatha festival, a multi-day festival honoring St. Agatha (Agata) the patron saint of Catania. It was quite the spectacle.
The Piazza del Duomo was crowded with people as fireworks exploded in the sky and men carried the lighted candelabras strapped to their back for one last procession around the square. It takes several men (I saw no women doing this) to lift up the massive and heavily adorned gold-leaf candelabras, walk them rather quickly for about a hundred feet and then put them down for a brief rest. Their destination was the Cathedral of St. Agatha. Filled with devotees and tourists, this is where the silver reliquary with St. Agatha's remains is located. After getting a taste of the festival that night, I told myself that I must return to have the full experience of the festival, and I did in 2005.
Now twelve years after that first arrival on the final night, I return once again to Catania on the final night of the festival. Just as the event was kicking off, the rain started to come down. The locals say it had been a particularly wet and cold winter in Sicily, but it wasn't enough to keep people from coming out for the end of one of the largest religious festivals in Europe.
The procession of candelabras makes it's way to the entrance of the Cathedral of St. Agatha while attendees wait in the rain. Before street lighting, the candelabras where used to light the streets during the procession
Inside the cathedral, devotions are yelled out as participants are overwhelmed with emotion of the ceremony. Devotees wear the traditional night clothes of St. Agatha's time consisting of white gloves, a black cap, and sackcloth robe.
A shrine to St. Agatha outside the old city wall is where devotees place offerings of flowers and candles.
Men carrying the candelabra through the Piazza del Duomo to the cathedral. A young boy rides on the candelabra emulating the carrying stance with his hand on his head. It takes 8 to 12 men to carry each candelabra.
Padded burlap hoods are worn to help bear the weight of the candelabras carried on individual's back.
The center person in the front and the back of the candelabras wear a heavy strap to hook onto the handles to aid in lifting and carrying the candelabras.
Attendees stand outside the gates of the side chapel to get a glimpse of the reliquary containing St. Agatha's remains. The reliquary is only brought outside the church once a year during the festival.
A barrier fence creates a larger parameter around the shrine to St. Agatha during the festival for devotees to light candles and pray. The offering of wax is an integral part of the festival. The area inside the barrier is covered with sawdust to absorb the wax after the used candles are tossed in the center.
Carriers taking a rest during the candelabra procession in the Piazza del Duomo. There are eleven candelabras in total each in honor of religious figures and traditional food producers such as fishermen, butchers, pasta makers, bakers, etc.
The candelabra are decorated with many depictions of St. Agatha's persecution and martyrdom. The candelabra design originated from the baroque era and are referred to as "baroque moving through a baroque city".
Two devotees in the cathedral paused to ask me where I was from, so I asked them if I could take a photo. Many wear a large pendant with the bust of St. Agatha as part of their outfit.
Fireworks explode over the Cathedral of St. Agatha at the beginning of the closing ceremony of the festival. Numerous fireworks displays occur throughout the city on a number of different days during the festival.
While photographing Riccado and his brother in their workshop Sicilia Intarsi, Riccardo offered to take me to visit Exedra, a family-owned baroque style furniture maker the next day. Baroque furniture is an old style that came out of the Baroque era from the 1700 to 1800's. It's a furniture style preserved by Exedra in the shadow of Mt. Etna in Belpasso, Italy. Though much of the process is automated, the detailed carving and upholstery is still done by hand.
Furniture makers carve the intricate baroque details on pieces of wood that will be used to make a chair.
Wood carving tools and shavings on a workbench in the Exedra workshop.
Furniture makers at their individual workbenches work on carving and shaping pieces of a baroque chair.
A furniture maker works on carving out the find details of a baroque chair at his workbench.
After details are carved out, the pieces are sanded and buffed using a rotary sander made of strips of cotton and sandpaper.
A baroque chair leg is sanded smooth with a handheld rotary sander. Much time is sent to get the finish just right.
Assembled chair backs are glued and clamped together awaiting further assembly.
Chair backs are fitted with additional embellishment by a factory worker taking great pains to insure a perfect fit.
Assembled and painted chair frames waiting to be upholstered.
Upholsterer cuts fabric by hand the fabric that will be used to cover a chair.
Sewing and final touches of the upholstery fabric are done by hand.
Upholstery thread unwinds from it's spindle while the upholster sews the fabric at his sewing machine.
Upholsterer's tool drawer.
Fabric is trimmed after being secured to chair.
Upholsterer secures fabric to chair using a power stapler.
Handmade piping laying in the seat of a chair awaits installation by an upholsterer.
After visiting Exedra furniture factory, Riccardo took me to the ceramic workshop of Le Nid Studio in rural Paternò with Mt. Etna serving as a snow-capped backdrop. Founded by renowned ceramic artist, Barbaro Messina and now directed by his sons Vincenzo and Fillipo, I was given the tour of the facility and Barbaro's second floor gallery featuring an abundance of his creations. Barbaro's many works consists of glazed slabs of Mt. Etna lava rock with depictions of the Sicilian physical and social landscape.
When we arrived, they were just putting the finishing touches on a set of glazed cut lava stone city markers for the communities surrounding the Mt. Etna UNESCO World Heritage Site, while artists were working on hand painted ceramic pieces depicting the Stations of the Cross.
Vincenzo Messina, director of Studio Le Nid brushes on a protective coating of lacquer on glazed cut lava stone pieces of lava rock signs to placed in the communities surrounding the Mt. Etna UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Vincenzo Messina, director of Studio Le Nid brushes on a protective
coating of lacquer on glazed cut lava stone pieces of lava rock signs to placed in
the communities surrounding the Mt. Etna UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Vincenzo Messina, director of Studio Le Nid brushes on a protective
coating of lacquer on the glazed cut lava stone pieces of lava rock signs to placed in
the communities surrounding the Mt. Etna UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Studio Le Nid artist paints a design on a ceramic tile to be used in a Stations of the Cross installation.
Le Nid Studio artist work on hand painting ceramic pieces to be used in a Stations of the Cross installation.
Le Nid Studio artists' tools and paints.
Small souvenir pieces of cut lava stone from Mt. Etna with a ceramic veneer and hand-painted design.
Barbaro Messina talks about the process of creating his cut lava stone and ceramic glazed artwork in his Le Nid upstairs studio and gallery.
Barbaro Messina shows off his cut lava stone
and ceramic glazed artwork depicting the Sicilian landscape in his Le Nid upstairs studio and gallery.
While visiting Catania, I had the good fortune of finding a very nice apartment in the historic center of the city. Tucked behind the apartment building, the owner Riccardo and his brother Giovanni D'Antonne operate a wood inlay company called Sicilia Intarsi. I spent some time in the workshop one afternoon to learn about and observe the art of wood inlay.
It's comprised of designing and cutting multiple layers of wood veneer and putting the design together like a puzzle. Once it is put together, masking tape is used to hold in place before it is glued and finished. They use a brandishing technique on some pieces by dipping the edges of pieces in a pan of heated lava granules from nearby Mt. Etna. It's very detailed and painstaking work, and a bit meditative as they work quietly together at the workbench. Riccardo tells me they are one of the few companies left that don't use computerized laser cutting technology. They still cut on a table saw guided by hand.
Riccardo and Giovanni assemble inlay projects on the central worktable in their workshop Sicilia Intarsi.
Giovanni manually guides the table saw with precision, cutting multiple layers of wood veneer. Sicilia Intarsi is one of the few inlay companies that does not use computerized laser cutting technologies.
A sampling of the tools used to create an inlay piece.
Riccardo inspects the inventory of completed samples in a cabinet finished with their own inlay design, while Giovanni warms his hands on a cool winter day in their unheated workshop.
Small finished inlay wood items in the samples cabinets used to supplement their online catalog.
Inlay pieces are grouped on the worktable after being burnished in a pan of heated lava granules.
Giovanni places a single piece in an inlay panel.
Riccardo trims a corner of an inlay panel border while Giovanni uses masking tape to hold his project in place.
Riccardo uses a hammer and razor blade to trim the corner of a panel border.
Inlay pieces are dipped in a pan of heated lava granules to burnish the edges for creative effect.
Riccardo tapes pieces of a panel while Giovanni burnishes individual pieces in a pan if heated lava granules.
Burnished inlay pieces with some residue of lava granules.
Riccardo treats me to Sicilian hospitality in the showroom featuring finished products using Sicilia Intarsi's inlay work. He is pouring a glass of Cantine Intorcia Vino Alla Mandorla. A sweet almond wine of Sicily.
