Church of Santa Venera in Santa Venerina
Jim Turner - CC1.0
The Church of Santa Venera is the Mother Church of Santa Venerina.
It was built in 1772, as a parish branch of the cathedral of Acireale, and only obtained its autonomy in 1921.
The main façade is divided into three central body surmounted by a tympanum and two lower lateral bodies surmounted by a marble balustrade. Two orders of columns separate the central body from the lateral ones and frame the main door. Above the main door there is a niche with the Statue of Santa Venera, the work of the Sicilian sculptor Mariano Vasta.
The bell tower of the church was destroyed following the earthquake of 1879 and later rebuilt. It was later heavily damaged following several seismic events and restored several times until 1962, when the current concrete bell tower was built.
The interior of the church has a single nave and has four side chapels added in 1754 .
The church houses works of particular artistic value: the fresco "San Giuseppe" and the eighteenth-century canvas "The Holy Family" by the Acinese painter Pietro Paolo Vasta; the eighteenth-century paintings "the Immaculate Conception" and "Sant'Antonio", works by Alessandro Vasta, son of Paolo Vasta; the canvas of the "Madonna del Rosario" by the Vaccaro brothers of Caltagirone.
