Santa Maria del Rogato Monastery in Alcara Li Fusi
The Basilian Monastery of Santa Maria del Rogato in Alcara Li Fusi was built around 1090 and is immersed in the countryside, beyond the Rosmarino stream.
The Monastery was spiritually the reference point of hermit San Nicolò Politi who, during his hermitage, went to the monastery every week to take the Sacraments from the Basilian Fathers and where, in this very place, he was buried from the year of his death, which took place in 1167, up to 1503. The monastery welcomes the visitor in its simplicity, with a portico adjacent to the church and what remains of the monastic rooms.
The fresco, the "Dormitio Virginis", a rare example of Byzantine figurative art. It represents one of the most important examples of medieval painting in Sicily: the thirteenth-century fresco cycle of the Dormition of the Virgin and of San Giovanni Battista.
Inside the church there are: a sculpture depicting San Nicolò Politi in a supine position; the old cypress urn that contained the remains; a popular eighteenth-century painting that portrays the Assumption.
Every year on August 15th the monastery is a pilgrimage destination for devotees and visitors who go there to attend Holy Mass.
