The eight towns in south-east­­ern Sici­ly: Cal­t­a­girone, Militel­lo Val di Cata­nia, Cata­nia, Mod­i­ca, Noto, Palaz­zo­lo, Ragusa and Sci­cli, were all rebuilt after 1693 on or beside towns exist­ing at the time of the earth­quake which took place in that year. They rep­re­sent a con­sid­er­able col­lec­tive under­tak­ing, suc­cess­ful­ly car­ried out at a high lev­el of archi­tec­tur­al and artis­tic achieve­ment. Keep­ing with­in the late Baroque style of the day, they also depict dis­tinc­tive inno­va­tions in town plan­ning and urban build­ing.