Church of Santa Caterina d'Alessandria in Palermo
The Church of Santa Caterina d'Alessandria in Palermo is part of the monastic complex that overlooks piazza Bellini and piazza Pretoria.
The church was built in 1500 at the behest of Maria del Carretto, prioress of the Dominican monastery, on a fourteenth-century place of worship that they no longer considered adequate to the magnificence of the monastery.
The church has two entrances: the main one on the southern facade overlooking Piazza Bellini, the other on Piazza Pretoria. Both entrances have a beautiful double-flight staircase with stone balustrades that allows access from the level of the square to the church.
The main facade is built in late Renaissance style and is divided into two orders. In the first order we find the portal of Gaginesque derivation. A rich entablature decorated with elegant sculptural figures connects the two orders of the facade. In the upper order, two pairs of pilasters frame the elegant window, while the spirals of two pairs of small volutes connect the lateral buttresses with the elegant upper pediment. On the top of the building there is a medallion representing the book, symbol of the doctrine and the lily, symbol of the purity of Saint Catherine.
The interior, with a single nave with three rococo-style chapels on each side, presents the frescoes of Francesco Sozzi and Alessandro D'Anna from 1769, the decorations of the vault by Filippo Randazzo, the precious stuccos by Procopio Serpotta and Giacomo Guastella. The statue of the saint is by Antonello Gagini, dated 1534.
The church was renovated several times and embellished with works by the best artists of the time. In the eighteenth century the dome was added and in 1863 the choir was built.
