Location: Duomo's square
Opening time: open every morning from 8 to 12, afternoons from 15 to 18
Phone number: tel. +39 095/320044
Architects: Giovan Battista Vaccarini; Girolamo Palazzotto; Antonio Battaglia; Carmelo Battaglia Santangelo; Carmelo Sciuto Patti.
Remarkable pictorial works
Baptism of Christ, 18th century fresco by Giovanni Tuccari (right aisle, back wall); The martyrdom of Santa Febronia (1733), painted on canvas by Guglielmo Borremans (right aisle, I altar); Santa Rosalia (1733), painted on canvas by Guglielmo Borremans (right aisle, II altar); Saint Anthony of Padua (1733), painted on canvas by Guglielmo Borremans (right aisle, III altar); Triumph of Saint Agatha and holy martyrs and bishops from Catania (1628), fresco by Giambattista Corradini (central apse);Saint Peter consecrating Saint Berillo, painting on canvas of the early nineteenth century by Antonio Subba (left nave, sixth altar); Martyrdom of Saint Agatha, painting on canvas of the late sixteenth century by Filippo Paladini (left nave, fifth altar);Saint Anthony abbot (1733), painting on canvas by Guglielmo Borremans (left aisle, IV altar); Saints Gaetano and Filippo Neri, painting on canvas of the eighteenth century by Giovanni Tuccari (left aisle, III altar); Saint Francis of Paola, painting on canvas of the eighteenth century by Giuseppe Guarnaccia (left nave, IV altar); Saint George (1624), painted on canvas by Girolamo La Manna.
Notable sculptural works: Sepulchral monument of Vincenzo Bellini (1876) by Giambattista Tassara (III pillar on the right); marble portal of the sixteenth century with scenes of the life of the Madonna by Giambattista Mazzola (entrance to the chapel of the Madonna, right aisle); sarcophagus of Queen Constance of Aragon of the fourteenth century (chapel of the Madonna); sarcophagus of the Roman era (chapel of the Madonna); Monument to the viceroy Ferdinando de Acuna (1495) by Antonello Freri (chapel of Sant'Agata); Monument of the Gravina Cruyllas family of the eighteenth century (Chapel of the Sacrament); marble portal of the sixteenth century with scenes of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ and the lunette with the Pietà by Domenico Mazzola (entrance to the chapel of the Crucifix).
Jewelry works
Reliquary bust of Saint Agatha by Giovanni di Bartolo (1373, chapel of the chapel of Saint Agatha); Casket of the relics of Saint Agatha, late fifteenth century/ sixteenth century with remakes of the eighteenth (chapel of the chapel of Saint Agatha).
Furniture and other remarkable machines: wooden choir of the late sixteenth century by Scipione di Guido; organ of French manufacture, Jeanpierre Jaquot of Rambervilliers (1877, counter-facade); wardrobe from the sacristy of the eighteenth century (sacristy); stained glass window of Duilio Cambellotti (1959, apse).
Historical notes
The Cathedral of Catania was built by order of the Norman rulers between 1092 and 1094. The question of a previous cathedral has been debated: the local historians of the nineteenth century thought it could correspond to the church of Sant'Agata la Vetere, while the most recent research has pointed to the existence of a cathedral in the early Middle Ages already on the current area. It is certain that with the Normans the area of the Platea Magna assumes a focal importance in the city: the center of Catania of origin gravitated in fact in an area more north - west, near the hill of Montevergine where today stands the monastic complex of the Benedictines; in the early Middle Ages, with the Byzantines, the area was still to be peripheral as well as under Muslim rule, although the presence of residential groups began to be recorded in the neighborhood. At the end of the eleventh century, finally, the district assumed a strategic role thanks to the presence in its heart of the Norman Ecclesia munita, or a fortress church that was to represent both the spiritual and temporal power, closely connected in the Norman era. The church, with its civita contained within the walls of the archiepiscopal complex, dominated the city for those who came from the sea and certainly defended the safety of the people of Catania, who emerged from decades of subjugation to the Muslims, lords of the Mediterranean Sea. Singular was the construction, by the successive dominations, of bulwarks of the same size next to the great cathedral: at the beginning of the thirteenth century Frederick II of Swabia built another castle dominating the coastal strip, the Ursino Castle, and in the first decades of the following century the Aragonese built the Civic Loggia right next to the cathedral (see Palazzo degli Elefanti).
he building suffered serious damage with the earthquake of 1118 when the high bell tower that stood along the northern facade fell; but with the earthquake of 1693 the collapses were so heavy to induce the almost total reconstruction of the building. The taste of the time contributed to such a radical renovation, which required the construction of a building of such importance following schemes that were very different from those of medieval architecture. In 1729 Bishop Galletti called the most active of the architects of the reconstruction, the Palermo Giovan Battista Vaccarini who managed to reopen the cathedral to worship in 1761. In those years Girolamo Palazzotto also intervened, another important architect of the reconstruction to whom we owe in part the idea of the layout of the building and its interior decoration. But the works are not yet finished and so we find in the construction site of the church architect Carmelo Battaglia Santangelo who works there until 1804. Between 1867 and 1969 the bell tower was built to a design by Carmelo Sciuto Patti. Other works involved the interior of the cathedral and between the nineteenth and twentieth century it continued to undergo profound changes, first of all the replacement of the high altar in recent times.
Description
A large balustrade, work of Carmelo Battaglia, decorated with nineteenth-century statues of saints, surrounds the cathedral complex. The facade, designed by Vaccarini, dominates the entire square and is the background of a hypothetical scenic space that opposite, following the axis of Via Garibaldi (ancient Via San Filippo and then Ferdinandea), closes with the Porta Garibaldi (see details Piazza Crocifisso Majorana and Piazza Palestro). It is tripartite in three orders; the decorate three statues depicting Saint Agatha, Saint Beryl esant'Euplio. The church is a Latin cross with three naves divided by large pillars. The transept and the apse conserve the most ancient, Norman and sixteenth century architectural testimonies: Along the transept on the right side opens the chapel of the Madonna which still preserves the sixteenth-century marble portal decorated with scenes of the life of the Madonna by Giambattista Mazzola. On the left side there is the chapel of the Crucifix introduced by another sixteenth-century marble portal with lescene of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ surmounted by the lunette with lapiety of Domenico Mazzola. The apses still clearly visible the Norman structure of the pointed arches: inside they are inserted, on the right, the chapel of Sant'Agata where is the chapel that houses the relics of the patron saint of Catania with the fourteenth-century bust of the Sienese Young Di Bartolo and the chest of relics. The main apse, with its altar repeatedly altered, was frescoed in the early seventeenth century by Giambattista Corradini with scenes of the Triumph of Saint Agatha and holy martyrs and bishops of Catania; in 1959 Duilio Cambellotti designed the stained glass window in the center of the apse. In the left apse is the chapel of the Sacramento.
In the sacristy there is a fresco of Platania depicting the eruption of 1669. Overall, the interior, both for its architectural structures and for the decorative sculptural and pictorial apparatus, expresses the overlap of different eras and styles that do not always harmonize with each other: appreciate each element in its completeness is the best reading of the cathedral of Catania. Another note: entering the courtyard of the archbishop’s palace open on the Via Vittorio Emanuele, you can admire the structure of the original walls Norman apses.