Church of San Vito in Mineo
The Church of San Vito in Mineo is also known as the Church of the Capuchins as it is annexed to the Capuchin Convent.
The date of construction of the church is not known, it is certain that the friars occupied the structure of the new convent in 1598 and that the church already existed at that time.
The convent church, dedicated to San Vito martyr, has a simple gabled façade delimited on one side by a pilaster corner, on the other, from the large body of the bell tower. It features a trabeated stone portal surmounted by a rectangular opening.
The interior, with a single nave, has two chapels, dedicated to San Vito and the SS. Crucifix and three minor marble altars, dedicated to Santa Agrippina, the Madonna degli Ammalati and Sant'Antonio, dating back to the 18th century, and coming from the destroyed monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli.
Many of the numerous works of art, preserved in the church they have been stolen over the years; those remaining are today kept in the provincial museum of the Capuchins in Caltagirone.
Today in the church there is a wooden structure, placed on the main altar, coming from the demolished Capuchin church of Augusta, and the wooden statues of San Vito, from the 18th century, of the Madonna degli Ammalati, of 1912, and of Saint Francis of Assisi, of 1773.
In the Capuchin convent you can still admire the frescoes of the Indulgence of the Porziuncola and the Meeting between San Francesco and San Domenico, located in the corridor; the fresco depicting the Last Supper, located in the refectory.
The Capuchin convent incorporates the remains of an Islamic qubba of uncertain dating: the square-plan building presents on each side, as per the Islamic prototype, almost entirely pointed arch openings walled up over the centuries. The original roof of the qubba was destroyed following the replacement of the domed part with a terraced pavement. In the convent you can still admire the frescoes of the Indulgence of the Porziuncola and of the Meeting between San Francesco and San Domenico, located in the corridor; the fresco depicting the Last Supper, located in the refectory.
In the silva of the convent of the Capuchin friars is the cemetery: of particular value is the noble chapel of the Tamburino Muratori family, a work from 1094 by the architect Santi Bandieramonte. The chapel is located at the end of the main avenue of the cemetery. The exterior, all in white stone, is in Italian Gothic style and is enriched by spiral columns and, in the entrance tympanum, by a delicate bas-relief depicting the Pietà.
