Church of San Michele in Savoca
TheChurch of San Michele in Savoca was born as the church of the castle of Pentefur. In 2002 it was declared a national monument.
It was built around 1250 at the behest of the Archimandrites. Originally the sacred building was small in size and mass was celebrated there in the Greek rite. In 1420 the church was enlarged and embellished with two valuable portals in Gothic-Sicilian-Chiaramonte style. At the end of the seventeenth century the interiors of the church were restored according to the style of the time: the Sicilian Baroque style.
The simple gabled façade is embellished by the two valuable Gothic-Aragonese portals with pointed arches in Sicilian-Chiaramonte style sandstone, located on the main and lateral façade. The main portal is surmounted by a circular sandstone opening. It is accessed via a small staircase, originally composed of seven steps, to which a curiosity. A plaque in the small square opposite recalls that children who died without baptism were buried in this place.
The interior of the church, with a single nave, presents a very valuable pictorial cycle consisting of: a precious fresco from 1701 depicting the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River; a small fresco bearing the image of the Madonna della Lettera dating back to 1701; two ancient paintings from 1701 depicting Saint Michael the Archangel and Saints Cosmas and Damian.
Among the works kept in the church, of particular artistic value are: the three baroque altars dedicated respectively to Saints Cosmas and Damian, in Santa Maria dell'Idria and San Giovanni; a valuable eighteenth-century wooden pulpit; the tombs of some local notables, such as that of the Crisafulli, built in 1581, and that of the Onofrio Cicala family, from 1749.
Every year, in this church, the day before the festa di Santa Lucia, the rite that begins the great celebrations takes place: the passing of the golden palm branch takes place between the little girl who played Santa Lucia the previous year to the one who will play her in the current year.
