Church of Santa Maria dell'Odigidria in Acireale
The Church of Santa Maria dell'Odigidria in Acireale, or church of Santa Maria dell'Itria, is an ancient building of worship in the city.
It is known that a sacred building stood in this same place of which there is already news since 1597. This construction was entirely destroyed by the earthquake of 1693The current building was equipped with and subsequently the current building was built.
The façade is delimited by two pairs of pilasters with Ionic capitals and high bases in lava stone. In the center there is the lava stone portal flanked by two pilasters with valuable inlays that support the entablature and two volutes. The portal is surmounted by a rectangular opening. The bell tower surmounts the facade determining the prismatic volume on a rectangular base. Of particular value is the imposing dome covered with polychrome tiles which shine in the sunlight.
The interior, with a single octagonal hall with a cross vault with lunettes, develops longitudinally towards the transept and the apsidal presbytery.
Inside the church there are works of particular artistic value: the painting of the Madonna dell'Odigitria and other paintings by Alessandro Vast; a late eighteenth-century papier-mâché statue of the Dead Christ. Of great value is the canvas of the Epiphany, a work from 1840 by Giuseppe Patania from Palermo.
