The church of San Francesco d'Assisi is a church in Gela, dedicated to the saint of Assisi and adjoining the city's Palazzo di Città. It has a single nave and stands on the remains of an earlier building.
What to see
The present church stands on the remains of another dating from 1499, rebuilt in 1659 in late Sicilian Baroque style, once attached to the convent of the Conventual Friars Minor. Among the canvases are works attributed to the Zoppo di Gangi, with the life of Saint Francis, to Filippo Paladini, with the Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, and to Vito D'Anna, with a Deposition of 1768. The marble holy-water font is of the sixteenth century, most probably attributable to the school of the Gagini.
The furnishings are completed by a group of eighteenth-century wooden statues and two marble funerary monuments, one dedicated to don Carlo Chiarandà, of 1748, the other to don Bernardino Strazzerio. After recent restorations, long-forgotten frescoes and the old gilding of the altars have come to light.
Visiting
The church is in Gela, next to the Palazzo di Città. The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check them with the parish, which belongs to the diocese of Piazza Armerina.
Our editors' tip
On the north wall look for the little-known plaque in homage to Dante Alighieri: the bishop of Piazza Armerina, Monsignor Mario Sturzo, dictated its text personally in 1921, beneath the coat of arms of the Franciscan Order.
