St. Cita's Oratory

The history

The Fellowship of the SS. Rosario in Santa Cita was founded in 1570 after the split with the homonymous company based in San Domenico and ushered in his oratory in 1686. The company, one of the richest and most prestigious, constrained to a rigid behavioral protocol, he devoted himself to charitable works and the forgiveness of sins through forms of indulgence.

Giacomo Serpotta

The Oratorio di Santa Cita remarks on a model of the oratory as a place of assembly and worship, liturgical and social functions with a double and with architectural contrast between the exterior and the interior beautifully decorated very modest. The site is accessed through a small portal surmounted by a shield through a marble staircase leads to the tiled balcony overlooked by two marble portals late sixteenth century. A large classroom leads antioratorio oratorio, a splendid procession in the elegant baroque stucco carefully prepared and carried out by Giacomo Serpotta, responsible between 1685 and 1690 to enhance the entire environment with an ecclesiastical iconography based on the exempla of the Mysteries and Virtues. The rectangular room has the character identification of the liturgical space and at the same meeting: the seat of Superior between the two gateways, the altar in the chancel floor and wooden benches in ebony inlaid with mother of pearl on the long walls on which sat the comp to attend religious ceremonies and meetings. On the side walls a fine plastic loop, composed of putti, allegorical statues and theaters, illustrates the Sorrowful Mysteries, Joyful and Glorious.
The pivotal episode of the oratorio, performed at the center of the counter to the apse, is the historic Battle of Lepanto in which the Christian fleet, protected by Our Lady of the Rosary, wins against the Turks. The square was decorated by the presbytery basin Serpotta between 1717 and 1718: the action deemed necessary to enhance the magnificent painting of the Madonna del Rosario painted by Carlo Maratta in 1695 and placed on the altar. In the Chapel of the Crucifix adjacent classroom have now been placed ticket services and bookshop.

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