What to see · Canicattì

Chiesa dei Santi Filippo e Giacomo

The church of Santi Filippo e Giacomo, known in Canicattì as «la Badia», stands in the historic centre beside the former monastery of the Benedictine nuns. It was built between 1663 and 1716 at the wish of Baron Giacomo Bonanno, on the site of an old little church dedicated to St Barbara. For some decades it has been closed to worship because it is unsafe: the roof of clay tiles has collapsed, the walls have serious cracks and vegetation is growing inside.

What to see

What you see is the façade, plain, of carved local stone. A stone portal frames the large wooden door, and above it is a marble medallion with the Madonna and Child and the souls of purgatory; at the centre a large window opens, and at the top the tympanum closes it. The bell tower, a spare one, is on the left side, leaning on the monastery wall.

The interior has a single nave. It has six altars, three on each side, adorned with Baroque stuccoes, and on the inner façade a loft carried by two columns with the Bonanno coat of arms. On the left wall, the one against the monastery, there are three frescoes: at the centre a nun looking from behind a grille, at the sides two large painted windows that echo the real ones on the wall opposite. What remains is the apse with the stuccoes by Signorello da Palermo, the high altar of coloured marbles, ten stucco statues of saints and the floor of majolica tiles.

Visiting

The church can only be looked at from outside: it is closed and reported as unsafe. The monastery, founded in 1663 and dissolved in 1920, has instead been restored: on 19 December 2013 an ethno-anthropological museum was opened there, later closed, and since 13 January 2017 it has housed the town's registry offices.

Our editors' tip

The paintings, canvases and statues that the Badia held can still be seen: they are in other churches of the town, and many are in the mother church of San Pancrazio. Anyone who wants an idea of what was inside has to look for them there.