Mother Church in Sant'Angelo di Brolo
The Church of Santa Maria in Sant'Angelo di Brolo is the Mother Church of the village.
It was built in 1534 and defined by the historian Vito Amico: the first and oldest, beautiful of non-vulgar magnificence and elegant building.
The simple façade with salient stonework is enriched by three splendid portals: the central portal, larger in size, is flanked by a pair of Doric pilasters and a pair of Ionic style columns supporting the entablature; the two side portals, finely decorated, are flanked by a pair of decorated parastras which support the entablature surmounted by two volutes in which two faces of angels stand out. On the right side of the building stands the bell tower, made up of four bells with excellent timbre. Behind the church is the underpass, known as U Cappelluni obtained through a pointed arch from 1755.
The interior, in the shape of a Latin cross, is divided into three naves and surmounted by a large dome. In the last left lateral archivolt, near the transept, there is an epigraph O MATER DEI MEMENTO MEI, coming from an older church, damaged by the earthquake of 1450.
Among the works kept inside Inside the church, of particular value are: the eighteenth-century organ by Annibale Lo Bianco; some 17th-18th century frontals hand-embroidered on silk with gold and silver threads; the finely crafted wooden statue of the patron saint San Michele Arcangelo; a valuable marble altar with colored inserts; the marble statue of the Madonna and Child; a canvas by Michelangelo and Giuseppe Vito dating back to 1698.
