Description of the attraction
The Church and Monastery of the Annunciation was erected in Marsala at the end of the 15th century on the site of an older temple, which became the sacristy of the new church, and the other premises surrounding it were converted into chapels. One of them - dedicated to Saint Onofrio - with a marble statue now lost, became the burial place of the princes of Petrulla. In the 16th century, a chapel was built for the noble Grignani family, which for a long time housed the statue of Madonna del Popolo by Domenico Gagini. Today it is kept in the Cathedral of Marsala.
The interior of the church, with the exception of the Madonna del Popolo chapel, is a reflection of past eras. Numerous plaques adorned the floor and walls, among them the plaque of the notary Rosario Alagna di Mozia (1799) and the exquisite sarcophagi of the Requisens and Grignani families, who made the church their mausoleum. The Church of the Annunciation was once one of the most important Renaissance monuments in Marsala.
The collapse of the roof and the destruction of most of the interior as a result of the bombing during the Second World War presents great difficulties for the restoration of the building. The current decoration of the church seems cold and inhospitable - the marble flooring, the iron spiral staircase in the main hall and the partially preserved roof do not help.
In recent years, the church was converted into a city library, which contained documents from the historical archive discovered in 1979. In 1996, the restoration of the Monastery of San Pietro was completed, and most of the library was moved there, but the historical archive remained in the church building.
The monastery of the Church of the Annunciation is of particular value. The oldest parts of it were built in the 14-15th centuries. Inside you can see frescoes dating from the 15th and 16th centuries and executed in a style typical, rather, of eastern Sicily. In 1862, the monastery complex became the property of the Ministry of Finance, which in the late 19th and early 20th centuries handed it over to the Carabinieri (mounted police). After the Second World War, the monastery was abandoned and began to gradually decline - its upper floor was even demolished for security reasons.
Only in the 1990s, restoration work began, during which the monastery courtyard was restored. A well and a vat were found right in the center, which were part of a certain underground room, the purpose of which remains unknown. Today, the monastery complex houses the Exhibition of Contemporary Art and hosts various performances.
