Sanctuary of Maria SS. Annunziata in Pedara
The Sanctuary of Maria SS. Annunziata in Pedara, located on a hill north of the town, is a Marian Sanctuary that has always been considered a place of great devotion and a destination for pilgrimages.
The original structure, which stood in a different place from the current one, was built in the 14th century, it is in fact known that in 1388 the license to build a parish church was granted under the title of the glorious Virgin Mary, Mother of God. Following the multiple damages caused by earthquakes and eruptions, in 1547 it was decided to build a new parish church further downstream dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria who became co-patron of the town together with the Annunziata around which new neighborhoods developed, but at the end of the 16th century, a certain Ludovico Pappalardo decided to build the new church dedicated to Maria SS. on one of his farms. Annunziata with the right of burial and patronage. The church destroyed by the earthquake of 1693 was rebuilt in 1695, at the behest of Don Diego Pappalardo whose family, until the nineteenth century, held the right of patronage. Subsequent expansions were carried out between the 19th and 20th centuries.
The church has a wide staircase in lava stone built in 1959, the year in which the street level was lowered.
The façade, divided into three by stone pilasters lava, reflects the partition of the internal spaces. Three portals open, the central one being of greater size and artistic importance: it presents a composition characterized by ribs made up of blocks of lava stone arranged vertically and by a broken tympanum onto which a window opens. It is surmounted by the white stone coat of arms of the descendants of Don Diego Pappalardo who, during the eighteenth century, had acquired the baronial title and shortened their surname to Papardo. Above the tympanum stands the white stone bell tower, whose construction dates back to a period preceding the redevelopment works of the 19th century, flanked by two small statues of the apostles Peter and Paul.
The interior, plan basilica with a single apse, it is divided into three naves by a series of columns placed against pillars separated by arches. On the vault, inside three panels, there are frescoes: The Visitation, two angels holding the Marian monogram, and the Nativity of Jesus.
Inside the church there is the simulacrum of the Annunciation, an object of great devotion by part of the Pedaresi.
