Church of San Francesco di Paola in Linguaglossa
The Church of San Francesco di Paola in Linguaglossa is an ancient and important building of worship in the village.
It was built in the 16th century on the pre-existing small church of the Madonna dell'Oreto.
The original façade of the church was covered by the body of the bell tower, placed in an advanced position with respect to the façade of the church, and by the portico that supports the corridor built in 1610 in order to connect the old Paolotti convent to the choir of the church. The bell tower, also dating back to 1610, was dominated by a spire which collapsed following the 1908 earthquake that destroyed Messina. Valuable is the door with eight bronze bas-reliefs depicting the life of San Francesco di Paola, a work by the sculptor Salvatore Incorpora in 1987.
The interior, with a single nave with a barrel vault, is decorated with fine baroque stuccoes. In the vault of the nave and apse, inside stucco frames, you can admire the frescoes dedicated to the life of San Francesco di Paola attributed to Giacinto Platania (1612-1691) from Acireale. Recent restorations have brought to light ancient frescoes hidden by more recent paintings; in particular in the vault it is possible to observe, through the various superimpositions, the artistic phases that have occurred over the years.
Among the works kept in the church, of particular artistic value are: the statue of the Madonna dell'Oreto, the work of the sculptor Antonello Gagini from 1504; the chromed terracotta statue of San Francesco di Paola, a sixteenth-century work by an unknown artist; a Baroque style confessional-pulpit with interesting paintings; The adjacent former convent of the Minimum Friars houses the town hall, the library and the art gallery.
