Church of San Camillo in Acireale
The Church of San Camillo in Acireale, dedicated to the Madonna delle Grazie, is known as the church of San Camillo since, once its construction was completed, it was entrusted to the care of the Camillians who arrived in Acireale around 1740.
It was built in 1730 and the construction was completed mainly thanks to the donations of Pietro Barrabini, a noble man of letters of Genoese origin whose family moved first to Messina and then to Acireale. In the same years, a hospice was built close to the church which offered assistance and help to the poor, orphans and sick of the city.
The façade develops in height and is limited by two large white stone pilaster strips with Doric capitals, supported by lava stone bases. The portal, in white stone from Syracuse, has two pilasters, surmounted by Corinthian capitals, decorated with anthropomorphic and phytomorphic motifs which rest on bases of white stone and lava stone. In the center of the architrave, characterized by geometric motifs and a frame with broken lines, there is an angel's head. Between the architrave and the small balcony with balustrades, from which the choir receives light, there is the cross, the coat of arms of the Camillians.
The interior is developed in an elevated position with respect to the street level and is accessible via an internal entrance staircase. It has a single nave and is richly decorated with frescoes by the famous Acese painter Pietro Paolo Vasta. The frescoes were commissioned by the young Camillian Litterio Risitano and were executed between 1743 and 1745, the years of Vasta's maturity, who by now enjoyed great fame, and depict the beatification of Camillo de Lellis desired by Pope Benedict his subsequent canonization which took place in 1746. At the behest of the young Risitano, who commissioned the work, the frescoes are a hymn to Mary who represents one of the cornerstones of the spirituality of the Camillians.
