Mother Church in Ventimiglia di Sicilia
The Mother Church in Ventimiglia di Sicilia, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mother Mary of the Conception, is the main building of worship in the village and overlooks its main square.
It was built in 1628 at the behest of Princess Beatrice, and it was built in exactly 12 months. The Princess herself gave the first parish priest of the church, D. Porfirio Sammarco, a sacred vestment, the Paramento di S. Anna, which is still used today in the most important solemnities. The building was enlarged in 1684 when the two side naves were added.
The façade, in classical style, is divided into two orders by a string course and is marked by pilaster strips with Doric style capitals. On the first level there is the main portal surmounted by a pediment and two smaller portals. On the second order we find, in the central part, a niche with the statue of the Virgin, flanked by a pair of pilasters surmounted by a pediment. Two simple lateral volutes connect the two orders.
The interior, divided into three naves, houses works of notable artistic value: the 16th century altar polyptych, a painting on wood attributed to Antonello Crescenzo known as the Panormita; the sixteenth-century statue of San Trifonio; a wooden crucifix dating back to the mid-17th century; an embossed silver thurible, chiselled with the initials of the consul Giuseppe Palombo engraved; a monstrance from 1725; an embossed and chiselled silver crown dating back to 1732; the chasuble, known as the Paramento di S. Anna, commissioned by Beatrice Del Carretto, princess of Ventimiglia of Sicily, in the first half of the 17th century.
