Built in 1606 by Giuseppe Giacalone, master builder of the Kingdom, to link the old town to the new, higher town, the staircase is over 130 metres long and is one of the symbols of Caltagirone.
Originally provided with several ramps of different sizes, they were reunited in 1844, giving life to the 142 steps that, since 1954, have been entirely decorated with polychrome ceramic tiles made by the State Institute of Art of Caltagirone.
The majolica tiles are decorated with Sicilian motifs from the 10th to the 20th centuries, collected and adapted by Prof. Antonino Aragona.
It was the architect Marino, however, who gave life to the sparkling lighting of the staircase on the city’s patron saint festivals, through the programmed lighting of four thousand coloured “tiles” (oil lamps locally called “lumere”), placed the night before the party according to a specific design that requires a month of preparation: the workers hand down this art from father to son. Thanks to them, the “lumere” suddenly light up one after the other, giving life to a fire snake that enchants the spectators for a few hours.
