St. Mamiliano's Church

The history

The hospital and the original church, dedicated to the virgin Tuscan Santa Zita, were founded in the early thirteenth century by a merchant of Lucca origin. In 1428 they made a donation to an heir of the whole complex to a group of Dominicans, separatisi from the nearby convent of San Domenico. The new community was completed in 1458 the renewal of the previous building. With the beginning of the sixteenth century, the custom of wealthy families to provide space for burials within the holy places, religious practice that guaranteed income to help support, management and the embellishment of churches.

But the real reconstruction took place only in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. The new architecture with three naves, designed by architect Joseph Giacalone, assumed grandiose scale, for its construction and sacrificed also bought the nearby Church of the Most Holy Forty Martyrs of the Nation of Pisa. I'm still in situ work by Antonello Gagini, one of the greatest sculptors of all time in Sicily: The Tribune arch of the chapel, originally built for the previous church, decorated with scenes from the life of the saint, and yet the tribune el ' Platamone arch of the chapel, the tombs of Blasco Lanza, Catherine and Antonio Cardona-Platamone Scirotta. They are now in the Regional Gallery of Palazzo Abatellis some important panel paintings of Vincenzo da Pavia adorning the altars.

Despite the serious damage caused to the building since the last war, in the transept you can see the magnificent Chapel of the Rosary is intended to accommodate the burial of the comp, the walls decorated with marbles and the frescoed vault by Pietro Dell'Aquila illustrate the Mysteries of the Rosary, is still the Chapel of the Crucifix, which was granted in 1614 to Ottavio and Giovanna Lanza di Trabia, who were permitted to open a vault, adorned with decorations on the walls, a marble altar frontal and mingling with a beautiful fifteenth-century Pietà recently ascribed to Giorgio da Milano. The Church of Santa Cita, today seat of the parish of St. Mamiliano, preserves an important altarpiece of 1603 by Filippo PaladiniSaint Agnes of Montepulciano.

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