Church of San Salvatore in Agira
The Church of the Holy Savior, located in the heart of the historic center of Agira, is one of the most important religious buildings in the city of Agira but is also the seat of the oldest Aron in all of Europe . < br> The place where the Church of the Holy Savior stands has always been one of the most important in the city, as it is believed that the ancient Roman forum of Agirino rose here. It was built in the Norman age on the ruins of a pagan building thanks to the Parisi family. In the following centuries it was subjected to various alterations. The earthquake of 1693 caused the collapse of some of its parts. The temple stands close to the slopes of the old medieval stronghold, on Piazzale Roma, which, like a terrace, overlooks the entire city.
The spectacular facade of the Church of the Holy Savior is in late Renaissance style, to which they mix different elements of the most sumptuous Sicilian Baroque. Two elegant niches open between columns and pilasters with Corinthian-style capitals, decorated inside with shells and above by two half figures of angels. On the sides there are two simple rectangular windows and, in the upper part of the façade, a niche with pilasters and scrolls and an interrupted curvilinear tympanum at the top. The building is a masonry structure made up of irregular blocks. The dome in Sicilian Arab-Norman style still has some medieval traces on the lower floors, clearly legible through the now buffered ogival openings.
The interior, with a basic plan, has three naves divided from each other by arches to all sides. sixth resting on stone columns with different capitals from each other. In the left aisle there is a chapel particularly decorated with a hard stone cornice meticulously worked in low relief to represent symbolisms.
Of considerable value is the Aron of Agira kept inside the church.
