A monumental Baroque town, its historic centre was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status in 2002, along with seven other municipalities on the list of Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto. "The town of Scicli stands at the junction of three valleys, with houses on each side up the cliffs, a large square at the bottom straddling a fiumara, and ancient ecclesiastical buildings crowning in several places, like Baroque acropolises, the semicircle of altitudes..." E. Vittorini