Santa Maria la Nova Church, Scicli, Italy

Santa Maria La Nova is a Baroque-style church in Scicli. A church at the site, dedicated to Santa Maria della Pietà, was present by the 6th-7th centuries. This church was destroyed during the Norman conquest. Reconstruction under the sponsorship of the Confraternity of the same name was funded by Pietro Di Lorenzo Busacca that, doing the will in 1567. The rebuilt church was then destroyed by the 1693 earthquake.

Like most other churches in town, it has a facade with three orders, divided into three compartments by pilasters, two Ionic and one Corinthian. The third story links to a belltower with a stone balustrade. The original designer was Giovanni Venancio Marvuglia, but his work was carried out by Cardona, with the interior stucco decoration completed in 1801 by Emanuele and Domenico Ruiz. The nave is flanked by three chapels on each side with a dome at the crossing. The upper story and vaults of the nave were begun in 1817 and the stuccoes not completed until 1851 by Gianforma. The church was reconsecrated in 1857.

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User Reviews

Giovanni Burletti (3 years ago)
Beautiful but in a state of decay

Paolo Oddo (4 years ago)
Church dating back to a first construction of the fifteenth century, it owes its name to the mainly funerary use that was made of it. In fact, thirty crypts were found during the renovation of the floor, not yet completed. Inside it is possible to admire the simulacra of "Cristo alla Colonna", "Cristo alla Croce", Madonna dello Spasimo ". Inside the rectory a museum has been set up with the restoration laboratory and where it is possible to see one of the six natural mummies found during the works. The church can be visited every day because it is kept open by the "Museo del Campanile - Triskele" group.

Sergio T (4 years ago)
Closed

Padua Wolfango (4 years ago)
The church is Baroque in style and is architecturally simple but very spiritual.

Manuela Ben (4 years ago)
Great potential, it needs huge restorations. Too bad for dirt and neglect.

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Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.

Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.

There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.

Santa Maria la Nova Church

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