Description
The Church of the Badia di Sant'Agata is the Baroque church facing the north side of the cathedral, on Via Vittorio Emanuele II: one of Giovanni Battista Vaccarini's masterpieces, with a facade that moves in curves and countercurves and an octagonal dome from which you can see the city and Etna.
The facade alternates convex and concave surfaces on the first order and curves three times in the attic: architecture that seems to be in motion, one of the themes dearest to the Baroque. The doorway is from the 17th century; it survived the earthquake and Vaccarini reused it.
Inside, the church has an elongated Greek-cross plan, enclosed in an octagon. The decoration is restrained: white stucco, white marble floors, and altars faced with yellow Castronovo marble. A large glass chandelier hangs beneath the dome.
On the altars stand polished stucco statues from 1782: Saint Benedict, the Immaculate Conception, Saint Joseph, and Saint Euplius. On the high altar, the statue of Saint Agatha recalls Ercole Ferrata's Saint Agnes on the Pyre, in the Roman church of Sant'Agnese in Agone.
From the base of the dome, completed in 1768, your gaze sweeps over the rooftops of Catania all the way to the volcano.
The church belonged to a convent of cloistered Benedictine nuns, founded in 1620. Metal grilles and pierced stone balconies let the sisters watch street life and processions without being seen.
Even in church the nuns stayed hidden: behind the high altar, a grille with a small balcony let them follow Mass out of the public's sight.
The earthquake of 1693 destroyed the earlier church and convent and, according to the chronicles, killed 15 of the 28 nuns. The survivors took refuge among the ruins, behind a fence. Work started again only in 1736, thanks to a bequest of 4,000 scudi made in 1720 by Giuseppe Moncada.
The facade alternates convex and concave surfaces on the first order and curves three times in the attic: architecture that seems to be in motion, one of the themes dearest to the Baroque. The doorway is from the 17th century; it survived the earthquake and Vaccarini reused it.
Inside, the church has an elongated Greek-cross plan, enclosed in an octagon. The decoration is restrained: white stucco, white marble floors, and altars faced with yellow Castronovo marble. A large glass chandelier hangs beneath the dome.
On the altars stand polished stucco statues from 1782: Saint Benedict, the Immaculate Conception, Saint Joseph, and Saint Euplius. On the high altar, the statue of Saint Agatha recalls Ercole Ferrata's Saint Agnes on the Pyre, in the Roman church of Sant'Agnese in Agone.
From the base of the dome, completed in 1768, your gaze sweeps over the rooftops of Catania all the way to the volcano.
The church belonged to a convent of cloistered Benedictine nuns, founded in 1620. Metal grilles and pierced stone balconies let the sisters watch street life and processions without being seen.
Even in church the nuns stayed hidden: behind the high altar, a grille with a small balcony let them follow Mass out of the public's sight.
The earthquake of 1693 destroyed the earlier church and convent and, according to the chronicles, killed 15 of the 28 nuns. The survivors took refuge among the ruins, behind a fence. Work started again only in 1736, thanks to a bequest of 4,000 scudi made in 1720 by Giuseppe Moncada.