Mother Church of Carini
The Mother Church of Carini , built at the end of the 15th century and dedicated to Maria Assunta, is located in Piazza del Duomo , where the oratory of the Compagnia del Santissimo Sacramento also overlooks and the church of San Vito.
The late eighteenth-century façade is in Baroque style and is characterized by three large portals surmounted by semicircular tympanums. Originally the facade had two bell towers but, after a collapse, the right bell tower was adapted to a clock tower. The right side of the building has a large loggia with three arches and lively polychrome panels in Baroque style composed of majolica tiles depicting: S. Vito, the Assumption, S. Rosalia and the SS. Crucifix, dated 1715 and signed by Ignazio Milone. The same tiles once also covered the spire of the bell tower.
The building has a Latin cross plan, divided into three naves by 12 columns in "Billiemi" ciaca. The first pictorial intervention carried out in the church dates back to the early 1700s, by Vincenzo Blandina, of which only a few testimonies remain in the chapel of S. Rosalia. Inside are preserved valuable works. The frescoes on the vault of the central nave, by the painter Giuseppe Testa, dating back to 1795 depict biblical episodes by the Elder and, in the sails, portraits of the Prophets and Evangelists.
Inside the church there are works of considerable value: a precious holy water stoup in very fine white marble depicting the towers of the castle, the symbol of the city; a marble tabernacle, where the Ecce Homo is depicted with the symbols of the passion and two praying angels, both from the Gaginian school; the canvas of the Adoration of the Magi, from 1578, by Alessandro Allori, a pupil of Bronzino; the painting on blackboard by Zoppo di Ganci depicting the Crucifix between S. Francesco and S. Onofrio; the precious wooden crucifix of the century. XVI, with an agate cross and crown and in silver, which is carried in procession during the Feast of the Holy Crucifix; finally, the two large canvases by Vito D’Anna, a great Sicilian eighteenth-century master, depicting the Addolorata and Veronica.
