Church of the Madonna of the Chain in Militello in Val di Catania
The Church of the Madonna della Catena in Militello in Val di Catania is an important place of worship in the village and is one of the few buildings that survived the earthquake of 1693.
It was built in 1503 at the behest of the Militello priest Don Nicola Di Salvo, near the Barresi summer palace in whose façade there was a votive shrine depicting the Madonna della Catena.
The façade, delimited by lateral pilasters, has a crowning with a flat frame on the lateral pilasters and a hut-shaped frame on the central field. It has two doors side by side, which have a functional and symbolic value: in the section of wall between the doors, internally, in front of the main altar, are placed the seats of the governor and the two consultants, major and minor; furthermore, one of the two doors was used by all the faithful, while the other seems to have been reserved for the passage of the funerals of the brothers. The two portals and the upper window with lateral volutes, placed in a central position, are part of a very balanced triangular scheme; the windows, the portals and the mirrors of the pilasters have fine and minute latticed ashlars. The flat surface of the façade is marked by the emergence of the coats of arms which were originally eight.
