Mother Church and Treasury of St. Nicholas in Militello in Val di Catania
The Mother Church in Militello in Val di Catania, dedicated to San Nicolò and the Santissimo Salvatore, is one of the most important places of worship in the village, fine example of the late Baroque style in Sicily declared a UNESCO heritage site.
It was built starting from 1721 to replace the ancient Mother Church, the Church of San Nicolò il Vecchio destroyed by the earthquake of 1693.
The façade is raised above the street level and is accessed via a monumental staircase. The imposing façade, marked by eight large pilasters with high bases and Corinthian capitals, is divided into three orders: the first order, designed by the architect Girolamo Palazzotto and completed in 1750, has a central portal, recovered from the high altar of the old mother church, with twin columns and a broken arch tympanum, and the two side doors, called the doors of the sun and the doors of the moon, surmounted by rose windows; the second and third order and the bell tower with a small oriental-style dome were designed by the Catania architect Francesco Battaglia in 1765. The dome, built in 1904, 30 metres high, is the first reinforced concrete work in eastern Sicily and is inspired by the Catania architecture of the late eighteenth century.
Among the works kept in the church, of particular value are: the large altarpiece from 1761 depicting the Preaching of Saint Nicholas by Vito D'Anna; the seventeenth-century chapel of the Pietà from San Nicolò il Vecchio; the valuable statues of Saint Nicholas in the chair, secondary patron saint of the city, and Saint Lucy from the seventeenth century, from the old matrix; the sculptural group of Neapolitan workmanship depicting the Holy Family dating back to 1748; the valuable wooden effigy of the Most Holy Savior, a work by Girolamo Bagnasco from Palermo from the early nineteenth century, enriched by an elegant golden fercolo with angels holding a crown, made in the first decades of the nineteenth century by Corrado Leone from Ragusa.
The rooms of the crypt house the San Nicolò Museum, an important institution that preserves and exhibits numerous works of art and sacred objects from the mother church and its branch churches.
