Church of the Holy Crucifix
In a wide space, at the beginning of the seventeenth century stood the convent of the Reformed Franciscan Fathers attached to the church of the Crucifix.
The site had already been used in ancient times for places of worship mentioned by Perdichizzi: the veneration for the eastern martyr Papia was based on a legend that narrated the arrival of the saint’s remains on the beach of Ponente, miraculously brought by the sea.
An ancient church, perhaps dedicated to the Madonna of Lampedusa, was restored in 1566. In 1618 the Reformed Fathers built their convent near the pre-existing church and in 1629 they began the reconstruction of the church and convent according to a project financed by the City. The official acts slightly modify the literary data : it turns out that the works of the convent had begun in 1620 and that within the same year the civic administration had officially allocated the site, to work started, to the friars; in 1627 the church had been brought to a good point thanks to the alms also requested from the municipality, which paid further donations in 1628 and 1630.
Remember the Perdichizzi that in his time there was only the high altar and the altars of Our Lady of Providence and the Crucifix. During the siege of 1718, the monastic complex suffered serious destruction: according to the Piaggia a dormitory collapsed and only part of the choir remained standing. There is no information on the reconstruction of the eighteenth century: probably dates back to this phase the great wooden altar made by the friar Lodovico Calascibetta by Petralia Sottana, died in 1729, it being unlikely that the realization could have escaped the destruction of the church. Important funerary monuments were erected during the eighteenth century by some private families and in 1798 the cult of the Crucifix received new strength from the miraculous lacrimation of the simulacrum of Umile da Petralia.
In 1934 the whole complex was reworked and the church equipped with a new facade designed by Giuseppe Mallandrino, which was inspired by the eclectic reformulated architecture of the eighteenth century. The interior of the church received a new arrangement and was frescoed by Salvatore and Guido Gregoretti. An examination of the physical state of the complex makes it possible to identify the various stages of construction.
The convent, rectangular in plan, is articulated around the cloister supported by simple columns in sandstone of Tuscan order; a cistern opens on the southern side and remains of frescoes are visible in some lunets, especially in the entrance. On the ground floor opens the vast environment of the refectory in which there is an ancient painting depicting the Last Supper. The outer shell of the building has been greatly affected by the alterations but there is no reason to believe that the Mallandrino has substantially changed the distribution of openings and the characters of the austere building.
To the monastery was attached a large garden that extended towards the sea and of its relevance were the houses on Via Grotta Polifemo, preserved in nineteenth-century appearance, as evidenced by a Franciscan coat of arms on the last house at n. 43. In the vast floor of the church stands a crucifix column of ancient structure but recently restored in the base that has been covered with marble slabs.
The facade of the church is a single order with matching giant Corinthian parastes that flank the sober portal from the broken tympanum on which opens an elegant eye: a concavely-convex striking movement animates the facade, involving the great tympanum with Franciscan coat of arms between heavy festoons and volute.
The interior has a single nave with quadrangular apse and pronaos.
In the nave there are three altars on each side, arranged symmetrically within arches: the current arrangement is influenced by recent interventions, with marble of little value except for the eighteenth-century inlaid altar of San Pasquale. All are equipped with polychrome statues quite recent: it can be remembered that of the Madonna of Providence whose cult is already attested by Perdichizzi. The writer, however, mentions a marble statue that may have been destroyed in 1718. A plaque (The devotees // Cav. F.sco Iannello // F.sco Daví // 1903) recalls the work of accommodation.
Great importance has the altar of the Crucifix: artistic wooden artefact was carved in 1635 by Humble friar from Petralia at the expense of the family Baele.
The back wall of the chapel, circumscribed by the arch, has been arranged (covering a previous painting of Marie at the foot of the Crucifix) with ancient reliquaries within paintings and richly carved wooden frames. The altar has been reworked with nineteenth-century marbles.
The frescoes made by the Gregorietti in 1934 depict the apotheosis of Saint Francis in the vault and episodes of the life of the saint in the sails.
Historical inscriptions and the monument D’Amico of 1885 are placed at the entrance. Next to the main door is the monument Zirilli of 1769 with large marble portrait of the deceased within the oval inlaid frame, accompanied by the family coat of arms.
In the center of the nave are placed the monuments dedicated to Caterina Patti Lucifero (1750) and the marquis Antonio D’Amico (1761), imposing marbled creations richly inlaid, with sarcophagi, allegorical statues and large portraits of the characters.
Numerous inscriptions published at the time by Piaggia have been lost as a result of the resurfacing of the pavement.
The arrangement of the sacristy dates back to works carried out in 1934, as revealed by the imposing wooden cabinet with sober eclectic lines. A marble sink with cherub is kept.