Mother Church in Sant'Alfio
The Mother Church in Sant'Alfio, dedicated to SS. Ss. Alfio, Cirino and Filadelfo, is the main religious building of the Etna village.
The church stands in a dominant position above a high staircase and with the spectacular scenery of Etna rising behind it.
The original building, smaller in size than the current one, was built in the 17th century. During the 19th century, expansion works were carried out which were completed only after the First World War. The façade is unfinished.
The façade is made entirely of lava stone, a unique feature in the entire Etna area. It is divided into two orders by a string course frame where, in a central position, there is a tympanum. The first order, marked by four pilasters, has three portals, the central one surmounted by a tympanum, the two lateral ones by segmental arches made of red stone. The iron doors were built with the contribution of the faithful residents (main door) and with the offerings of immigrants to America and Australia (side doors).
The interior, divided into three naves, features valuable nineteenth-century frescoes which celebrate, in the center of the apse, the elevation into heaven of the three saints after their martyrdom, and, around the dome, the four evangelists.
Inside the church there are works of particular artistic value: the eighteenth-century painting work by Vito D'Anna, student of maestro Paolo Vasta; the painting of the "Three of November" which recalls the grace received by the country through the intercession of the Holy Martyrs on the occasion of the disastrous lava eruption of 1928.
