Sciacca's mother church carries the name of the Madonna del Soccorso because of an event the town has never forgotten. Founded in 1108 by Giulietta the Norman, daughter of Count Roger and lady of the city, the basilica keeps from its original fabric the east-facing apses and the mighty Gothic arches of the fifteenth century. But it is in 1626, in the middle of a plague, that the devotion is born: during a procession a lightning bolt struck the feet of the Madonna's statue and, so tradition holds, from that smoke the town was healed. Ever since, the Virgin of Succour has been the patron of Sciacca.
What to see
The façade — Baroque with Renaissance echoes and a single bell tower on the left — plays on the contrast between tufa and plaster. High up stand three Gagini sculptures of 1541 — Saint Mary Magdalene between the pediments of the doorway, Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the side niches — by Giandomenico and Antonino Gagini. Inside, after the seventeenth-century rebuilding, the old columns became sturdy pillars and the pointed arches were rounded. Look up to the vault of the nave: it is entirely frescoed by Tommaso Rossi in 1829, with the Throne of God and the heavenly court drawn from the Apocalypse and ten great canvases on the life of Mary Magdalene. Among the chapels are the font of 1495 and a Madonna di Monserrato attributed to Domenico Gagini.
Visiting
The building you see is the one rebuilt between 1656 and 1686 to a design by Michele Blasco, after a corner collapsed, but on the Norman foundations: stepping in, you literally walk on nine centuries of history. In 1991 John Paul II raised it to a minor basilica.
Our editors' tip
Look up as soon as you enter: Rossi's frescoed vault is the real spectacle of this church. And find the three Gagini statues on the façade — half a millennium of Sicilian sculpture gathered above the doorways, before you even cross the threshold.