Description
The Church of Santa Maria di Gesù is a 15th-century Franciscan church on the square of the same name, in Catania, not far from Villa Bellini: rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake, it still holds works of the Sicilian Renaissance.
The most precious is the Paternò Chapel, which opens with a portal carved by Antonello Gagini and his workshop in 1519, with a bas-relief of a Pietà. The single-nave church also has the wooden Crucifix carved in 1628 by Friar Umile da Petralia.
Outside, the sides alternate blocks of black basalt and white stone, as in many churches around Etna. Next door, the friary has a small Renaissance cloister with a frescoed portico. From the 5th century BC to Christian times, the whole area was a burial ground.
The most precious is the Paternò Chapel, which opens with a portal carved by Antonello Gagini and his workshop in 1519, with a bas-relief of a Pietà. The single-nave church also has the wooden Crucifix carved in 1628 by Friar Umile da Petralia.
Outside, the sides alternate blocks of black basalt and white stone, as in many churches around Etna. Next door, the friary has a small Renaissance cloister with a frescoed portico. From the 5th century BC to Christian times, the whole area was a burial ground.