Church of Sant'Andrea in Buccheri
Davide Mauro - CC4.0
The church of Sant'Andrea a Buccheri is a very rare example of Gothic art and a very valuable example of medieval religious architecture of the Swabian period, surprising for its resistance to time and to the cataclysms that have destroyed many traces of the past here.
The church stands in an isolated place and its presence bears witness to a very important and dramatic historical phase in medieval Sicily, an era in which Ruggero d'Altavilla put an end to Arab domination and reintroduced Catholic worship. With the reign of Frederick II, the various Arab communities were in fact forced to convert or, in case of refusal, to deportation. The church of Sant'Andrea bears witness to the will of this process: it was commissioned by Frederick II and stands in the place where there was a solid Arab community of which traces still remain in the toponym (the name of the nearby district Rachalmeni derives from Rahalmeni which in Arabic means house.
The church was originally oriented with the apse to the east and the entrance to the west, but successive modifications have inverted the entrance.A small rose window placed high up still filters the light of the sunset, the vault has admirable pointed arches, the remains of the religious frescoes that decorated it remain in the apse.
