Church of Sant'Antonio di Padova in Cianciana
Church of Sant'Antonio di Padova in Cianciana and the adjoining convent of the Franciscan Fathers is an important religious complex in the village.
The Church of Sant'Antonio was built in the mid-seventeenth century and completed in 1670 by order of the Most Excellent Prince Ludovico Joppolo of the barons of Spain. The adjoining convent, entrusted to the observant minor Franciscan Fathers, dates back to the same era and stands on the Regia Trazzera delle Lettighe, once a communication route between Agrigento and Palermo.
The simple façade of the church has two lateral pilasters, a central door surmounted by a window.
The interior, with a rectangular plan, has a single nave and ends in an apse. The nave is decorated with stuccoes in typical Sicilian Baroque style.
Among the works kept inside the church, of particular value are: the wooden statues of San Giuseppe, the Immaculate Madonna, San Pasquale Baylon, Sant' Anna, of San Gioacchino and of San Francesco d'Assisi, works by the Neapolitan artist Giacomo Colombo; an oil painted panel depicting Saint Anthony of Padua; a large canvas depicting the Madonna dell'Abito, the work of Accursio Torretta.
The convent is spread over two floors in addition to the basement. In the basement there were the cellar, the pantry and the storage rooms; on the ground floor, the sacristy, the refectory, the kitchen and the reception; on the first floor thirty-five rooms used for dormitory. There is also a rectangular cloister in the center of which there is an octagonal cistern. The premises are now used partly as barracks and partly as a school.
