CHURCH OF SANT'AGATA AL CARCERE

The church is one of the central places of the cult of St. Agate. It rises in a particularly interesting site for the history of Catania, characterized by a stratification that includes parts of the Greek fortifications dating back to the sixth century BC. and then structures from the imperial era that are traditionally considered the places of the saint's imprisonment. Fortifications from a later period, from the Aragonese period and then from the 16th century, & nbsp; are recognizable on the site with the name of Bastione del Santo Carcere. & nbsp; The first building of the church dates back to the 15th century when the Guerrera family had a temple built with an entrance on the south side. In the current church, part of this first building can be found in the Gothic cross vault of the presbytery. Following the destruction caused by the earthquake of 1693, the church was rebuilt on a project by the architect Francesco Battaglia who created a Baroque monument with balanced and elegant lines. Since 1762 the refined Norman-style Romanesque portal from S. Agata la vetere, the old cathedral, was inserted into the facade. Inside, in late Mannerist style, the martyrdom of St. Agata, Bernardino Niger's altarpiece dated 1588. Objects of devotion are also worth mentioning, behind an illuminated grate, the rock in which the saint imprinted the imprint of her shoe and a part of the chest in which the relics of the saint were transported when they returned to Catania from Constantinople in 1126.