On Sunday 22 December at 6.15pm the exhibition “The sign of the century. The sanctuary of the Madonna delle Lacrime”, first outcome of a research work by the Syracuse SDS in Architecture and Cultural Heritage, together with the Syracuse Society of Homeland History.
“We accepted the request of the Rector of the Sanctuary, Father Aurelio Russo, to preview the exhibition during the Christmas period at the Sanctuary in order to offer the majority of faithful the opportunity to retrace, through the 22 panels, the history of the miracle and the initial phases of the sanctuary story” – says professor Fausto Carmelo Nigrelli, president of SDS and responsible for the research project. “In March – he adds – it will be exhibited at Palazzo Impellizzeri where a first day of studies on the topic will be held.”
“Through this study on the most important event of the 20th century for the city (not only from a religious and anthropological point of view, but also architectural and urban planning) we are highlighting the historical moment in which Syracuse changes forever – continues – The economic, social and political events contemporary to the miracle and the subsequent process of monumentalisation of the event with the competition and construction of the Sanctuary are reconstructed through unpublished documents partly collected in the panels.”
The exhibition is divided into five sections of four panels each: “The sanctuary and the city” which describes the phase of great urban change of those years with the Cabianca plan; “the miracle” that reconstructs the religious ferment that was stimulated by the tears of the Madonna; “letters to the Madonna” which presents a selection of requests or thanks to the Madonna which, in the last 4 months of 1953 alone, numbered more than 5 thousand; “the city that changes” in which the “new Syracuse” of industry, tourism, transport and social changes is told and, finally, “the competition” with a summary of the story which saw the involvement of 91 designers from 17 Different countries and an international commission.
“The exhibition is closed by a single panel showing some drawings from the winning project by Michel Andrault and Pierre Parat – says Salvatore Santuccio, president of the Siracusana Society of Homeland History – because during 2025 we will develop two more exhibitions dedicated respectively to the competition and to the sanctuary created.”
The research activity has the patronage of the Archbishop of Syracuse, the BCA Superintendency of Syracuse and the Municipality of Syracuse, department of culture. The preview of the exhibition will be presented by the architect Federico Fazio, PhD in History of Architecture, who is working on the Sanctuary archive.
