Church of the Immaculate Conception in Militello in Val di Catania
The Church of the Immaculate Conception in Militello in Val di Catania and the former convent of San Francesco d'Assisi of the Friars Minor Conventual constitute an important complex of the village. The convent was one of the first Franciscan convents in all of Sicily.
It was built in 1235 at the behest of Friar Paolo da Venezia, a disciple of San Francesco d'Assisi. Over the centuries it was destroyed several times following calamitous events and rebuilt. Today only the church remains, while the convent building, now dilapidated and unsafe, was demolished in 1964.
The church has a simple gabled façade delimited by two parastras, at the center of which opens a carved portal surmounted by a rectangular window.
The interior, with a single nave, is embellished with valuable stuccos in neoclassical style.
Inside is kept the polychrome wooden statue made in 1693 by the sculptor Camillo Confalone. The other works, including some valuable paintings by Filippo Paladini, are now kept at the Museo San Nicolò.
