Church of Sant'Antonio Abate in Castiglione di Sicilia
The Church of Sant'Antonio in Castiglione di Sicilia stands in one of the oldest districts of the village, the Cameni district.
Its construction began in 1601, when the old church, which stood in the near the San Giacomo stream, it had been ruined by a landslide. Initially for its construction the offerings of the devotees and of the brotherhood of the Holy Souls of Purgatory were used. Only at the end of the 1600s was the church embellished and enriched above all with mosaic marbles made by Tommaso Amato and with canvases by Tuccari, a Messina painter.
The particular concave facade, ennobled by classical moldings, gives the whole a touch harmonious of lines and shapes. The bell tower, delimited in the architectural structures of the lava stone, stands out with its bulbous dome compared to the rest of the church.
The interior of the church has a single nave. Among the polychrome mosaics present inside the church of interest is that of the main altar in which the medallion of the frontal depicting Saint Anthony the Abbot stands out.
Among the other works of art worthy of note is the wooden statue of Sant'Antonio, due to Nicolò Bagnano. The confessional wooden pulpit decorated with many friezes and engravings and the stupendous tabernacle is also valuable.
