The church of Santa Maria del Carmelo, also known locally as the church of the Madonna del Carmelo, was built in the first half of the eighteenth century, in the years when Nicolosi was completing its reconstruction after the Etna eruption of 1669. It went up in the same decades as the churches of Santa Maria delle Grazie and San Giuseppe: three building sites that show how quickly the town had found its feet again.
Nicolosi sits on the southern slopes of the volcano, among pyroclastic cones such as the Monti Rossi and the hill of Mompileri, and has long been regarded as the gateway to Etna. That position has dictated its history: eruptions and earthquakes threatened the town repeatedly and, at least once, erased it altogether.
What to see
The church is one piece of eighteenth-century Nicolosi, the town reborn after the prince of Campofranco granted permission to rebuild on the original site around 1670-1680; the nineteenth century added the church of San Francesco di Paola and the chapel of Saints Cosmas and Damian. The wave of devotion that followed the eruption of 26 April 1766 — the one that formed the Monti Calcarazzi and badly damaged the woods — left the town the memory of the Tre altarelli, three small altars raised once the danger had passed, painted with the images of the local protectors: the Madonna delle Grazie, Saint Anthony of Padua and Saint Anthony the Abbot.
Visiting
The centre is best explored on foot, pairing the church with the others of the reconstruction era. The climate helps: summer in Nicolosi is far milder than on the Ionian coast, and winter brings a couple of snowfalls a year on average. The town also hosts the headquarters of the Etna Park, a practical starting point for anyone continuing up the volcano.
Our editors' tip
Before you come, read «L'agonia di un villaggio», the short story that Giovanni Verga — an eyewitness — set in Nicolosi during the eruption of 1886: the lava stopped about a hundred metres from the first houses, and on 13 June, the feast of Saint Anthony of Padua, the evacuated townspeople were able to return home. Walking among the town's churches with that story in mind changes the way you look at them.