Mother Church Misterbianco
The Mother Church of Misterbianco, dedicated to the Madonna delle Grazie, is located in the heart of the historic center of the city and overlooks Piazza Papa Giovanni XXIII.
It was built a few weeks after the eruption of 1669 which destroyed the ancient town. Initially the church was not designed to be the mother church of the city, as the main church was supposed to be the Chiesa di San Nicolò, built at the same time.
The facade of the church was built by inspiring it as much as possible to the main church of the same name destroyed by the eruption and statues depicting Christ the King, St. Peter and St. Paul were placed on top of the three entrances.
The interior of the church is divided into three naves. The decorative apparatus created by Giuseppe Barone includes a cycle of frescoes depicting the evangelists Giovanni and Luca in the apse, works from 1935.
Among the works kept inside the church, of considerable value are: the statue depicting the Madonna delle Grazie dating back to 1589, from the Gaginian school. The marble sculpture was kept in the primitive church of Campanarazzu, but was miraculously saved from the eruption of Etna in 1669; and the precious statue depicting Saint Anthony of Padua.
The large crypt of the mother church, which today is located at street level, was equipped with a double hypogeum system: a chapel with an adjoining colander and ossuary on one side, a sepulcher for the rectors of the church on the other, with an independent entrance. In these rooms, the Civic Museum of Sacred Art has been created.
