Before the cathedral of San Giuliano was built in the 13th century, this was the mother church of Caltagirone — the townspeople still call it “la Matrice,” “a Matrìci” in Sicilian. It rises in the oldest part of town, at the top of the Santa Maria del Monte staircase, roughly 700 metres above sea level: one of the highest and oldest churches in Caltagirone, and today a minor basilica of the diocese.
What to see
The late-Baroque facade, worked in carved stone, came out of the rebuilding that followed the 1693 Val di Noto earthquake. The work was already finished by 1739 when the bell tower collapsed, destroying part of the structure and forcing a new design, entrusted to the Catania architect Francesco Battaglia. Inside, the plan is a Latin cross with three aisles, broken into five bays with small altars under elliptical domes; the central nave rests on paired columns that carry a barrel vault. That vault is frescoed with biblical heroines — read by tradition as prefigurations of Mary, whose image fills the vault of the presbytery — painted in the first half of the 19th century by the Vaccaro brothers, artists from Caltagirone itself. Several altars in the transept reward a closer look: the altar of the Madonna del Salterio, with a marble statue attributed to Domenico Gagini and dated 1492; the altar of the Presentation of Mary at the Temple, bearing the Boscarelli-Sturzo family coat of arms; and the altar of Christ at the Column, which holds a wooden statue carved in 1592 by Paolo Nigro.
Visiting
The devotional heart of the basilica is the Madonna di Conadomini, a panel that reached Caltagirone in the first half of the 13th century and was painted on both sides: during the novena and on special occasions the Byzantine image of Mary and the Child is shown, while the reverse depicts the Dead Christ rising from the tomb, the wood of the Cross behind him. The name “Conadomini,” often explained as a corruption of “Icona Domini,” in fact comes from the cona that once held the Image of the Lord. Since 1644 the Madonna has been invoked as the city's patron alongside Saint James, and throughout May the church fills with the faithful.
Our editors' tip
Climb the Santa Maria del Monte staircase on foot: the church closes it off at the top, and you reach it out of breath but at the highest point of the old town. If you can, come in May, when the Madonna di Conadomini panel is displayed and the devotion reaches its peak.