Page 588 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

Dazzled by what he’d seen, he neglected his religious duties after his return to

Palermo in order to design some of the city’s most characteristic churches,
Sant’Ignazio all’Olivell and San Domenico among them. Vincenzo Sinatra had a
more traditional career, starting as a stonecutter before working with Gagliardi in the
1730s as his foreman. In 1745 he married Gagliardi’s niece, a move which did him no
harm at all, since by 1761, when Gagliardi had a stroke, Sinatra was managing all his

affairs. For ten years he directed the construction of Noto’s Municipio, and during the
rest of his life Sinatra worked in collaboration with the other city architects on a
variety of projects. More important was Giovanni Vermexio, who was active in
Siracusa at around the same time. His work graces the city’s Piazza del Duomo,
notably the Palazzo Arcivescovile, while he gets a couple of ornate-interior credits,

too, in the shape of one of the Duomo’s chapels, and the octagonal Cappella di San
Sepolcro in the church of Santa Lucia in the Achradina quarter of Siracusa.

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