Description
The church of Sant'Agata al Carcere stands where, according to tradition, Catania's patron saint was held prisoner before her death in 251. It is a small Baroque church in the neighborhood of the Roman amphitheater, and its facade carries the medieval portal of the old cathedral.
The facade, in a restrained Baroque style, frames the white marble Romanesque portal, reassembled here in 1750 from the Norman cathedral. The arch rests on six slender columns decorated with checkerboard, herringbone and diamond patterns; along the jambs, biblical figures, real and imaginary animals and floral motifs intertwine.
Inside, two churches live side by side. The Baroque nave was added by Francesco Battaglia after the earthquake of 1693; the presbytery, with its Gothic cross vault on four columns with Corinthian capitals, is what remains of the 15th-century church built for the Guerrera family.
The most precious work hangs over the high altar: Saint Agatha Led to Martyrdom, painted on panel by Bernardino Niger and signed in 1588. On the right wall of the presbytery, behind a grille, you can see the saint's footprints, which according to tradition were left in the lava stone as she was taken back to her cell after being tortured.
A small door to the right of the presbytery leads into the prison itself, a room from the Roman imperial age. Excavations have confirmed the date, but it is unlikely to have been a prison: the large niches and a mosaic found above it suggest rather a monumental tomb or a sacred storeroom of a temple.
The prison comes up again and again in the Acts of her martyrdom: this is where Agatha is said to have been locked up after refusing to sacrifice to the gods, where Saint Peter appeared to heal her wounds, and where she died on February 5, 251.
The church also keeps a piece of the chest in which the saint's relics came back from Constantinople in 1126. They had been carried off in 1040 by the Byzantines of General George Maniakes; two soldiers, Gisliberto and Goselmo, brought them home 86 years later.
Here the city can be read in layers: a stretch of Greek walls from the 6th century BC, Roman structures from the 2nd century and the remains of the bastion with which Charles V strengthened the walls of Catania in the mid-16th century.
The facade, in a restrained Baroque style, frames the white marble Romanesque portal, reassembled here in 1750 from the Norman cathedral. The arch rests on six slender columns decorated with checkerboard, herringbone and diamond patterns; along the jambs, biblical figures, real and imaginary animals and floral motifs intertwine.
Inside, two churches live side by side. The Baroque nave was added by Francesco Battaglia after the earthquake of 1693; the presbytery, with its Gothic cross vault on four columns with Corinthian capitals, is what remains of the 15th-century church built for the Guerrera family.
The most precious work hangs over the high altar: Saint Agatha Led to Martyrdom, painted on panel by Bernardino Niger and signed in 1588. On the right wall of the presbytery, behind a grille, you can see the saint's footprints, which according to tradition were left in the lava stone as she was taken back to her cell after being tortured.
A small door to the right of the presbytery leads into the prison itself, a room from the Roman imperial age. Excavations have confirmed the date, but it is unlikely to have been a prison: the large niches and a mosaic found above it suggest rather a monumental tomb or a sacred storeroom of a temple.
The prison comes up again and again in the Acts of her martyrdom: this is where Agatha is said to have been locked up after refusing to sacrifice to the gods, where Saint Peter appeared to heal her wounds, and where she died on February 5, 251.
The church also keeps a piece of the chest in which the saint's relics came back from Constantinople in 1126. They had been carried off in 1040 by the Byzantines of General George Maniakes; two soldiers, Gisliberto and Goselmo, brought them home 86 years later.
Here the city can be read in layers: a stretch of Greek walls from the 6th century BC, Roman structures from the 2nd century and the remains of the bastion with which Charles V strengthened the walls of Catania in the mid-16th century.