The church of San Giacomo, also called San Giacomo Maggiore, is a Rationalist-style church in Gela, the work of the architect Salvatore Cardella. It stands in piazza San Giacomo in place of an older medieval church, whose Gothic portal has been recovered.
What to see
The building was put up, according to the sources consulted, in the 1950s: one city account gives 1951, another 1956 for the church and the square. It took the place of the fourteenth-century church of Santa Maria di Porto Salvo, and the recovered Gothic portal is also described as the pointed-arch portal of the old little church of San Giacomo, of the thirteenth century, displayed in piazza San Giacomo.
The church has three aisles and a polygonal dome. It holds the remains of Salvatore Aldisio and his wife: one of the main streets of central Gela is named after Aldisio.
Visiting
The church is in Gela, in piazza San Giacomo. The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check with the parish. The pointed-arch portal of the old little church is displayed in the square.
Our editors' tip
According to the sources the Arab-medieval town of Heraclea, the first urban nucleus founded after the Greek destruction of 282 BC, lay in the area between the monumental cemetery and the church of San Giacomo Maggiore, and is said to have had numerous churches and even a sewer system.
