Church of the Nativity of Maria Santissima in Buscemi
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The Mother Church of Buscemi, dedicated to the nativity of Maria Santissima, stands at the end of the main street, Corso Vittorio Emanuele, on an imposing staircase and with its facade, considered among the most significant of the Baroque of the Val di Noto, dominates the city.
The original structure was completely destroyed by the earthquake of 1693, following which the church was entirely rebuilt in the same place and completed in 1769.
The facade of the church, attributed a Francesco Maria Sortino is spread over three orders, separated by various festoons of flowers and fruit and filiform friezes, and is characterized by the alternation of straight and circular, prominent and recessed columns. On the first order, in a central position, is the imposing central door characterized by a lowered arch and flanked by two bas-reliefs depicting the heads of a man and a woman, identified with the Requisenz princes, who sponsored the reconstruction. Between the first and second order, the stone statues of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul are placed at the ends, while those of two large angels are placed between the second and third. On the second order there is a large central window, above which a shield is carved with the image of Mary in swaddling clothes. The last order serves as a belfry and is surmounted by a cross with an iron radial pattern.
The interior, with a Latin cross basilica plan, is divided into three naves with transepts and dome. It has monumental stone columns supporting imposing composite-style capitals. On the sides of the naves there are valuable eighteenth-century altars in worked stone.
Among the works kept in the church there are numerous paintings by unknown nineteenth-century authors, such as the one dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin, placed on the high altar. The only work whose author is known is the altarpiece of the Immaculate Conception with Saints Francis and Anthony the Abbot, by Antonio Manoli from 1736.
In the altar on the left, the embalmed body of Saint Pio is venerated, coming from from the catacombs of S. Callisto in Rome, donated by Pope Benedict XIV to the Buscemesi to protect them from terrible seismic events.
