Church of San Sebastiano in Militello in Val di Catania
The Church of San Sebastiano in Militello in Val di Catania is an ancient place of worship in the village.
The date of construction of the original building is unknown but it is certain that it already existed in 1504. The church was the seat of the brotherhood of the same name which is believed, given the presence of a sign on the facade, to be linked to the Order of Malta. It was a destination for devotees and pilgrims who acclaimed San Sebastiano martyr co-patron of Militello, for having freed the city from the scourge of the plague. It was destroyed by the earthquake of 1693, and rebuilt in 1702 incorporating the portal of the sixteenth-century church into the facade.
The façade, bordered by lateral pilasters, has a crowning with a flat frame above the pilasters and a gabled frame on the central body. In the centre is the sixteenth-century portal from the original building destroyed by the earthquake of 1693, bordered by pilasters and surmounted by a high trabeation. Above the portal is an octagonal window, bordered by pilasters that support a broken tympanum, and flanked by elegant volutes.
The interior, with a single nave, has three altars. The main altar houses the statue of San Sebastiano with a wooden fercolo, framed by a magnificent carved stone chapel in Baroque style from 1708.
Valuable works, once kept inside the church, are now part of the Treasure of Santa Maria La Stella: the silver reliquary of San Sebastiano, the sixteenth-century wooden statue of S. Paolo by Giovan Battista Baldanza jr. and other sacred furnishings.
