Church of SS. Trinity in Bronte
The Church of SS. Trinità a Bronte is the most important sacred building in the city both from an architectural, historical and documentary point of view.
The current building was built in the first half of the sixteenth century starting from pre-existing structures: the main church of Santa Maria and the church of SS. Trinity. The church of Santa Maria, the largest, occupied the current space of the naves of the church, while the church of SS. Trinità, smaller, occupied the space of the current transept and had the entrance in correspondence with the current altar.
The simple facade, characterized by the contrast between the black of the lava stone of the parastras and the white of the plaster, presents a tall and mighty bell tower whose construction dates back to 1579. The bell tower has three sill markers in lava stone which divide the plastered background on which the single lancet windows with round vaults and a crenellated crowning with an octagonal-based cusp stand out.
Of particular interest are the traces, visible on the outside, of the two ancient buildings that make up the church: on the north wall the corner of the ancient church of Santa Maria and the entrance with an ogival door are evident, the stone ashlars can be seen limestone and a small mask with a human face; on the south wall, there is a walled-up door with architrave and semi-columns and some sandstone ogival chink windows.
The interior, with a longitudinal Latin cross plan with three naves, is decorated with stuccos, friezes and gilding. The nave is supported by twelve sandstone columns with capitals. The columns were consolidated with a masonry structure following the collapse of two of these in 1818 due to an earthquake. The transept is enclosed in the short sides by the two Baroque altars of the Crucifix and the Purgatory.
Among the works kept inside the church of particular value are: the baptismal font, dating back to 1614, in carved marble with a nineteenth-century cover in painted and historiated wood; the ancient choir with the imposing and austere gilded and inlaid benches and the majestic equipment of the majestic mechanical organ.
Of particular interest are the structures of the ancient churches still visible in the current building. The following are visible: a part of the rustic external wall and a single lancet window of the ancient church of Santa Maria; a large arch that overlooks the current entrance, which once led into the presbytery of the ancient church of Santa Maria; some columns, the floor and other architectural elements in limestone, referable to the ancient church of Santa Maria.
The church is of documentary importance because the only historical archive of the population is kept inside it since the end of the 1500s.
