Church of Maria SS. Immaculate in Belpasso
The Church of Maria SS. Immacolata in Belpasso is the Mother Church of the city.
Even if the church is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, the devotion to Saint Lucia, the Patron Saint of the Etna town, is very strong, whose relics and simulacrum are preserved inside a chapel of the church, the camaredda.
The building was built in 1700 based on a design by the architect Bellia.
The façade features typical lava stone elements and is divided into three spans of a giant order of four pilasters that support the entablature. The façade is crowned by a baroque style bell tower with seven bells, including the Campanone di Santa Lucia, one of the largest bells in Italy.
The interior has a basilica layout with three naves punctuated by arches on mighty pillars. There is a valuable late eighteenth-century wooden choir, in inlaid, sculpted and painted wood, and a nineteenth-century wooden pulpit with canopy canopy.
The Church houses works of notable artistic and historical value which mostly come from from the old city covered by the lava of 1669. Among the works preserved, of particular value are: the seventeenth-century painting depicting the crucified Christ, which is striking for the profound realism of the chest and the in-depth study of the muscles of the arms, coming from the vestibular wardrobe of the Collegiate Church of Catania; a large seventeenth-century wooden Crucifix; the altarpiece with the Madonna del Rosario, dating back to the mid-17th century and coming from the Mother Church of Malpasso; the large canvas depicting the Immaculate Conception by Francesco Vaccaro from 1868; the canvas of the Child Jesus dating back to the second half of the 18th century; the late eighteenth-century statue of the Immaculate Conception, in carved and painted wood; the statue of San Mauro abbot dating back to the early nineteenth century; the simulacrum of Saint Lucia probably dating back to the beginning of the 17th century.
