Mother Church in San Michele di Ganzaria
The Church of San Michele Arcangelo is the Mother Church of the village of San Michele di Ganzaria and is consecrated to the Patron Saint.
The church is also known as fanum gallorum, i.e. temple of the Frenchsince it was built by the Angevins in the 13th century. Originally the building was small in size, but over the centuries it was remodeled and enlarged several times until it took on its current appearance.
The façade, characterized by simple lines, is in Gothic-Cistercian style and was restored by architect Filippo Basile in the 19th century. It is divided into three orders by white horizontal lines: on the first order there is the main pointed arch portal flanked by the two fake side portals, whose lines reflect those of the central portal. on the second level there is a window, also with a pointed arch, with a mosaic window representing Saint Michael the Archangel with a sword in his hand; the third order features a fake rose window with a play of arches, the two lateral bell towers and, in the centre, an iron cross with a weather vane. The two bell towers do not belong to the original building but were added in recent times: the first bell tower was built in 1926, while the second in 1948.
The interior, in the shape of a Latin cross, is divided into three naves by eight columns .
Among the works kept inside the church, of particular value are: a seventeenth-century baptismal font; the statues of San Michele Arcangelo, represented in the moment following the overthrow of Satan, and of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of the Gaginesque school; two swords, one of which is contemporary with the statue of St. Michael the Archangel, in solid silver, and a second gold-plated donated to the Saint at the end of the 1950s by a group of emigrants.
