Collesano Mother Church
The Mother Church of Collesano, also known as the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, stands with its imposing size at the top of a monumental staircase, dominating the entire town.
It was built in 1513 and used as the new mother church of Collesano starting from 1543.
The staircase in front of the church was designed by the painter-engineer Antonino Spatafora in 1602. The prospectus dates back to the beginning of the twentieth century.
The church has a basilica layout with three naves and inside it houses works of considerable artistic value: the splendid cycle of frescoes on the walls of the presbytery with stories of the saints Peter and Paul, by Gaspare Vazzano known as the "Zoppo di Gangi", dating back to 1624; the Crucifix, suspended from the central nave, supported by a highly suggestive wooden apparatus and painted on the reverse with the resurrection of Christ, dating back to 1555; the sixteenth-century organ, rebuilt in the seventeenth century by master Antonino La Valle; the sixteenth-century wooden choir, the work of the Collesanese carver Andrea Russo; the grandiose marble tabernacle from the end of the fifteenth century from the church of Santa Maria Assunta; the canvas depicting the Annunciata, the "Madonna dei Miracoli", patroness of Collesano. The basilica also houses numerous paintings on canvas and wood and wooden statues from other churches in Collesano.
