Church of the Oratory of the Filippini Fathers in Acireale
The Church of the Oratory of the Filippi Fathers in Acireale is a valuable building of worship in neoclassical style whose peculiarity lies in the fact of having the façade enclosed within a courtyard.
The current structure was built starting from 1827 on the site of a pre-existing eighteenth-century church. It was built based on a design by the architect Francesco di Paola Patanè at the behest of Father Mariano Patanè, founder of the Oratory of the Filippini Fathers in Acireale.
The façade, which opens onto an internal courtyard, is characterized by very simple lines with a vaguely neoclassical. Above the portal, carved into the facade, there is the writing Domus Orationis surmounted by the congregation's coat of arms.
The interior, with a single nave, is in neoclassical style. The nave is punctuated by multiple, powerful and slender columns with Corinthian style capitals. The vault is frescoed by Giuseppe Rapisardi from Catania.
Among the works kept inside the church, of particular value are: the canvas depicting San Filippo Neri, by Antonino Bonaccorsi; the canvas of the Holy Family, by Francesco Mancini; the canvas depicting San Luigi Gonzaga receiving his First Communion from San Carlo, a work by Paolo Leonardi.
Of particular value and an object of great devotion is the painting on slate Madonna della Purità, a work by Alessandro Vast.
