Marsala Churches

Mother Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury
The Cathedral Church of Marsala is dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury. Tradition says that a British ship carrying the material in England for the construction of a church in honor of St.Thomas of Canterbury. But a storm forced her to shelter in the port of Marsala. The event was interpreted as a sign of divine will and decided to build here a church dedicated to Saint. It was built in the late 1100s. In 1726 it proceeded with a makeover. The elegant facade dominates the main square, is adorned with statues and two lateral towers on the second order. The interior is divided into three naves by marble columns. On open aisles twelve chapels. In them are works of great importance. In the right transept you will find an elegant Madonna del Popolo was built in 1490 by Domenico Gagini and Purification of the Virgin of Antonello Riccio. Left apse is preserved and an icon of Antonello Gagini Berrettaro.

Church of Purgatory
It was built in the early seventeenth century and then enlarged by the Order of Minims in 1780 and subsequently completed.

The Church of San Pietro in Marsala (now closed to worship) is part of the Monumental Complex of the same name founded by the noblewoman Adeodata in 595 AD, transforming her home into a monastery.The church and monastery of St. Peter originated in the Middle Ages thanks to the will of a woman, Adeodata, who founded a monastery of nuns in her house dedicated to St. Peter and the martyr saints Lawrence, Hermes, Pancras, Sebastian and Agnes.At the end of the thirteenth century, with the arrival of the Dominican fathers in Marsala, the monastery underwent a decisive expansion and the Church dedicated to St. Peter was added.The main façade was built in 1569 and has a large rose window of balustrades, inscribed in an octagon, with the result of creating a beautiful effect of movement and lightening of the structure. The portal formed by pilasters and semi-columns on high plinths is surmounted by a triangular pediment of evident Renaissance taste, which gives the structure a certain monumental character, in which the keys and the tiara are depicted, symbols of St. Peter, the first pope, bears the date of construction 1569.The bell gable has three arches. On Via Andrea D'anna there is a crowning of swallow-tailed battlements and a Renaissance portal (old entrance to the church) with the symbol of Peter. The plan of the church is basilica, with a single nave and a barrel roof, divided into three parts: internal portico, defined by three arches resting on two columns, on which is located the choir which has a wooden balcony and an eighteenth-century railing, central hall with 4 altars (2 on each side) and square apse.The interior of the church houses valuable works, including, to the right of the entrance, an elegant stoup of 1583 of the Gaginesque school. On the vault of the Church you can now only glimpse what remains of a fresco by the Trapani painter Domenico La Bruna. Also valuable is a painting depicting St. Benedict, dated 1631, an important work by the Lombard painter Antonio Mariani, two gilded wooden candelabra of the eighteenth century and a precious altar frontal of the nineteenth century, hand-embroidered with gold threads by the nuns of the monastery. Finally, on the main altar, surmounted by a hemispherical dome, there is a canvas depicting Saints Peter and Paul dating back to the seventeenth century.Adjacent to the church is the former Benedictine monastery with the characteristic observatory (1583), a quadrangular tower with a double loggia, with an elegant balustrade and pyramidal spire, from which behind the goose-chested grates, the cloistered nuns could follow the processions without being seen. In the internal courtyard, which preserves part of the beautiful loggia, the rooms of the monastery open up, including the refectory.The monastery, after decades of neglect, has been renovated and transformed into a cultural center that houses: the Municipal Library "S. Struppa", the Civic Museum (Garibaldian Risorgimento section, archaeology and popular traditions), the International Center for Risorgimento Studies and the International Center for Phoenician-Punic and Roman Studies.

They certainly don’t make them like this anymore !

Haven’t found the graveyards yet.Læs mere