Churches & Places of Worship

Militello in Val di Catania. Chiesa confraternale of the Madonna della Catena

: Benedicta Lee; Category: Churches & Places of Worship; 16 March 2018; SICILIA • CATANIA • Militello in Val di Catania

A true female pantheon is the Church of the Madonna della Catena, built in 1541 and survived the earthquake. Inside, a seventeenth-century baroque decoration in white and gilded stucco adorns the walls, with the figures of twelve Sicilian Virgin Saints in the lower order and the Joyful Mysteries in the upper one. A riot of cherubs, shells and festoons surrounds the main figures. From the mid-1600s is the inlaid wooden coffered ceiling, like the wooden choir.

Militello in Val di Catania. Chiesa of the Santissimo Crocifisso al Calvario

: Benedicta Lee; Category: Churches & Places of Worship; 16 March 2018; SICILIA • CATANIA • Militello in Val di Catania

Not far from Militello rises Mount Caruso on whose summit, in 1610, a wooden cross was raised, as it was on Golgotha. For this reason, when a church was built in 1617, it was called Calvary. The wooden cross, symbol of this place and survived the earthquake (which here made a hundred victims), is displayed on the porch and used for the Good Friday procession. Inside, the image of the Crucifix is exhibited in the central chapel, with numerous relics.

Militello in Val di Catania. Church of Sant’Antonio di Padova (or of “Sant’Antonino”)

: Benedicta Lee; Category: Churches & Places of Worship; 16 March 2018; SICILIA • CATANIA • Militello in Val di Catania

According to tradition, first an aedicule and then a church (1503-1574), were built right where Sant’Antonio di Padova would have stopped.

Decorated with alternating bands of white and black stone, the bell tower is the work of Antonio Scirè Giarro.

Inside, the sixteenth-century chapel of the presbytery, originally known as the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher, is attributed to Giandomenico Gagini senior and Antonuzzo Gagini, one of the last representatives of the great family of sculptors.

Militello in Val di Catania. Church of the Santissimo Sacramento al Circolo

: Benedicta Lee; Category: Churches & Places of Worship; 16 March 2018; SICILIA • CATANIA • Militello in Val di Catania

Built in 1724, this church was intended for the exposure of the Blessed Sacrament. Its baroque façade with a concave profile reveals how the militellese architect Antonino Scirè Giarro was affected, at the design level, by the influence of Borromini. The interior is decorated with stuccos. Many works of art that enriched it have been transferred to the Treasury of Santa Maria della Stella to prevent the numerous thefts.

Militello in Val di Catania. Church an Monastery of San Francesco di Paola all’Annunziata dei frati minimi

: Benedicta Lee; Category: Churches & Places of Worship; 16 March 2018; SICILIA • CATANIA • Militello in Val di Catania

Antonio Piero Barresi built a church for S. Maria Annunziata around 1480, enlarged with the monastery between 1503 and 1515. The Dominicans settled there and, from 1613, the Friars Minims of San Francesco di Paola. The church is embellished on the outside by a portico with columns, decorated with frescoes with the Glory of Paradise and the Pene of Purgatory; the interior nave is covered with late-baroque stuccos, while those of the high altar are from the seventeenth century, framing the statue of the saint.

Militello in Val di Catania. Church and Monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli dei frati Cappuccini

: Benedicta Lee; Category: Churches & Places of Worship; 16 March 2018; SICILIA • CATANIA • Militello in Val di Catania

Caterina Barresi founded the monastery in 1575, next to a small pre-existing church.

The complex was renovated in 1709 and hosted the friars until around 1980; today the Mass is celebrated only once a month by the Capuchin friars of Augusta (SR).

The church, with a single nave, is adorned with elegantly carved chapels and a splendid altarpiece with Santa Maria degli Angeli and six saints painted Filippo Paladini (1612), superbly framed by a wooden high altar.

Militello in Val di Catania. Church (Municipal Auditorium) and Monastery of San Domenico dei Frati predicatori

: Benedicta Lee; Category: Churches & Places of Worship; 16 March 2018; SICILIA • CATANIA • Militello in Val di Catania

It was Francesco Branciforti who had the church and convent built for the Dominicans, inaugurating them in 1613.

Damaged in 1693, it was restored with a classical façade from the tympanum to the spiers.

The rooms of the convent, long used as schools and private houses, after a development project today house municipal offices, the Municipal Library "A. Majorana "and the Museum and the Municipal Picture Gallery" S. Guzzone ".

The church, with a single nave still decorated with stuccoes, is used as an auditorium.

Militello in Val di Catania. Church and Monastery of San Leonardo Abate

: Benedicta Lee; Category: Churches & Places of Worship; 16 March 2018; SICILIA • CATANIA • Militello in Val di Catania

The church was built by the Barresi in the mid-1500s, as the seat of a brotherhood devoted to this hermit.

The Branciforti built the monastery, where in 1631 the Augustinian monks residing outside the city were transferred.

Saved from the earthquake of 1693, today it lies in ruins: the church went into disuse and the monastery was converted into a seat of public schools until 1950.

Its precious works of art, including the seventeenth-century statue of San Leonardo, can be admired at the San Nicolò Museum.