Mother Church of Scicli
The Mother Church of Scicli, dedicated to San Guglielmo Eremita, is one of the oldest churches still open for worship in the city. It was annexed to the Jesuit convent, which was demolished in 1961 to make way for the current school building.
Following the earthquake of 1693 it was destroyed together with the college, then under construction, and later rebuilt. The works ended in 1751, a date that appears on the facade of the church. The drawings of the original project relating to the construction before the earthquake are currently kept at the National Library of Paris.
The facade is divided into two orders and is enlivened by the presence of backseat pilasters, including four statues placed on pedestals and decorations. with little heads of cherubs and leaf motifs. The second order is flanked on the sides by two cuspidated bell towers and surmounted by a mixtilinear tympanum; in the center is one of the civic clocks of the city.
The interior has a basilica plan with three naves separated by large pillars against which semi-columns rested. Of particular importance is the high altar in inlaid marble from the church of Santa Maria la Piazza which replaced the previous wooden altar. The side aisles are divided into three chapels, one of which is dedicated to the Madonna delle Milizie, whose papier-mache simulacrum depicts the warrior Madonna with the blue cloak and the sword on her right hand sitting on a white horse rearing up on its hind legs, under which there are two crushed Saracens. A second chapel is dedicated to San Guglielmo, in it there is a large laminated ark built between the 17th and 18th centuries, inside which two reliquaries are kept. Particularly interesting is the panel of the urn in which the city of Scicli is represented. The left aisle ends with the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.
Among the works kept inside the church, of particular interest are: the canvas depicting the "Madonna during the battle between the Normans and the Saracens" which, according to legend, depicts a battle that took place in 1091 on the coast of Scicli, the work of Francesco Pascucci in 1780; the sixteenth-century pulpit in carved walnut; and the ancient organ with baroque friezes.
