Mother Church of Sambuca di Sicilia
The Mother Church or Matrice di Sambuca di Sicilia is one of the most important monuments of the city.
The construction of the church was financed, in the first half of the 17th century, by Donna Giulia, marquise, and her sister Maria. The Church occupies a part of the ancient Castle of Zabut and the whole part of the primitive Church of San Pietro Apostolo built around 1420. The building was seriously damaged by the earthquake of 1968.
The Matrice is rich in composite styles: a portal entrance in Arab-Norman style, coming from one of the churches of the destroyed Adragnus, preceded by a long staircase; the decoration of the portal on the right side is instead inspired by Renaissance motifs mixed with delicate Baroque influences. The walls, the columns, the royal vaults, the cyclopean bases of hard tuff stone give the temple a cloistered rigor and harmony. Of particular value is the bell tower, obtained from one of the defense towers of the Saracen castle, which culminates in a pyramidal spire covered with polychrome ceramic squares and supported by enormous acanthus leaves carved in the hard tuff stone . It is a unique work of craftsmanship, for the time, in western Sicily.
The interior, in the form of a Roman cross, has three naves divided by columns supporting round arches. At the point where the transept intersects with the central nave rises the dome of Renaissance inspiration.
Among the works kept in the church, of particular value are: a wooden triptych of the Crucifixion; a large wooden altarpiece depicting the "Martyrs Tree" in bas-relief with reliquary fruits in place, dating back to the seventeenth century; a canvas depicting the "Three Crowned Saints" of the Novelli School; a holy water stoup of the Gaginian school; and the large altarpiece of the high altar depicting the Assumption of Tintoretti inspiration.
