Church of the Holy Cross in Avola
The Church of the Holy Cross in Avola, also known as the Church of the Capuchin Convent, is a small religious building known for being the burial place of many illustrious citizens of Avola.
It was built in the 16th century and renovated in the 18th century.
The simple gabled façade appears without any architectural detail.
The interior houses works of notable artistic value: a beautiful tabernacle made by Brother Giuseppe da Ragusa around 1667 with precious wood essences and place above the main altar; a polyptych with the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in the centre, a sixteenth-century work by the Flemish painter Franz van de Kasteele, and on the sides the virgins and martyrs Venera and Lucia and the saints Francis and Conrad; the canvas of the Ecstasy of St. Joseph, a work from 1706 by Giuseppe Sequenzia da Noto; a seventeenth-century tabernacle in wood and tortoiseshell.
