Description of the attraction
Santa Maria della Catena is a church in Palermo, built in the late 15th - early 16th centuries on the site of a small chapel designed by the architect Matteo Carnilivari. It is located in the vicinity of the city port of Cala. According to one of the legends, the name of the church comes from a miraculous event that happened in the 14th century, when the shackles of prisoners, unjustly sentenced to death, literally melted in the sun after they offered prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In Italian, the word "catena" just means "chains, shackles."
In the construction of the three-nave church, a mixture of Renaissance and Gothic-Catalan styles was used, the features of the latter are especially clearly visible in the arched covered balcony crowning the main staircase, which was added in the middle of the 19th century. The interior decoration is also in the late Gothic style and includes the work of an unknown master of the 17th century "The Nativity of Christ and the Adoration of the Magi" and bas-reliefs of the 16th century, the authorship of which is attributed to Vincenzo and Antonello Gagini. The latter worked on the capitals of the columns and the entrance portal of Santa Maria della Catena.
The first chapel on the right is dedicated to Saint Brigitte, inside it you can see a painting by an unknown artist from the 17th century, depicting the greatness of the saint, and on the sides and on the ceiling there are 18th century frescoes by Olivio Sozzi. In the second chapel, there are also preserved old frescoes - they date back to the 14th century and depict the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus in her arms, who has a very adult appearance and a bald head, which testifies to his eternal wisdom. In the corners of the chapel there are statues of Saints Margaret, Ninfa, Barbara and Olivia. Their creation is credited to Gagini.
In 1602, a monastery was added to the church, the premises of which have been occupied by the state archive since 1844. And the church of Santa Maria della Catena itself is today considered one of the most significant examples of the local embodiment of the Renaissance style.
