Church of Santa Maria di Gesù in Alcamo
The Church of Santa Maria del Gesù in Alcamo is one of the main churches in the city.
The church of Santa Maria di Gesù was founded in 1450 by the blessed Archangel Placenza da Calatafimi, after the foundation of adjoining convent of the Minor Observant fathers. Initially this church was located outside the city walls, in the open countryside, but around 1500 the church gave its name to a door in the defensive walls of the city, called "Porta di Gesù".
The facade has an entrance portal in Carrara marble, bought by Luigi Enriquez and Anna Cabrera owners at that time of the castle of the Counts of Modica, the work of Bartolomeo Berrettaro, an Italian sculptor who lived between the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century.
L ' the interior is decorated with various frescoes: on the vault there is a fresco representing the Assumption, the work of Leopoldo Messina; on one wall the fresco of St. Francis in the act of contemplating Jerusalem, by the same author; there are three other frescoes on the life of St. Francis of Assisi, painted by Carlo Righetto in 1901.
Worthy of note are a small marble statue of St. John the Baptist by Giuliano Mancino and two marble medallions, the Annunziata and San Gabriel, from the school of Gagini, placed in the baptistery.
