Mother Church in Leonforte
The Church of San Giovanni Battista in Leonforte is the Mother Church of the city.
It was built on the ruins of a pre-existing church from which it takes its name. The works, at the behest of Princess Caterina, began in 1611 but were only completed in 1740.
The church has a scalloped staircase on the front that enlivens the linearity of the facade.
The facade, in classical Baroque style, it is richly decorated and has three doors bordered by decorated columns and surmounted by broken tympanums and sculptures. At the top it ends with two balustraded stone balconies and two large volutes that connect the central part to the side ones. Above it presents the marble epigraph with the dedication and the date of construction.
The quadrangular bell tower, on the back, is of a more severe architectural form.
The interior, in the shape of a Latin cross with three naves delimited by marble columns with Corinthian capitals, is in neoclassical style. The vault and the altars are decorated with white and gilded stuccoes. Of the two inlaid marble altars, one is the original altar of St. John the Baptist of the primitive church.
Among the works kept inside the church of particular value are: an oil painting depicting "The expulsion from the temple" by Marco Antonio Raimondi, the frescoes on the life of St. John located in the apse of the main altar; the "Vara" of the Madonna performed by Michele La Greca of Enna; the fercolo with the dead Christ of 1650 placed on an altar in the right aisle.
