The church of Santa Barbara is dedicated to the patron saint of Paternò and has been a diocesan sanctuary since 8 December 2024. Saint Barbara was proclaimed patron in 1576, because the people believed she had stopped the plague of that year; her cult was at first held in the church of the Madonna dell'Itria of the Teutonic Knights, but in 1583 the town bought an oratory dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene, belonging to the monastery of Santa Maria della Valle di Josaphat, and the cult was moved there. In 1669 Bishop Michelangelo Bonadies made it a parish church.
What to see
The present building probably derives from an eighteenth-century design, which incorporated the old oratory on the right side, now a parish hall; the façade was raised in 1781, as a cartouche in the pediment records. It is neoclassical with Baroque touches: Ionic pilasters frame the central portal, topped by a niche with the statue of the saint, and an upper order encloses a two-arched loggia that serves as the bell tower, with 13 bronze bells that ring in concert for the patronal feast. The three statues on the façade are by Mario Moschetti, of 1911, and the bronze doors of 1991 tell the life of Saint Barbara.
The interior is an octagon intersected by a Greek cross, covered by a dome almost 40 metres high, with nineteenth-century stucco in pastel colours. In the niche of the high altar, of 1872, is kept the silver statue of Saint Barbara of 1745, and beneath the altar table a silver casket with her relics; at the sides are two canvases with the Miracle of the plague and the Miracle of the lava. The side altars hold paintings by A. Attinà and a Crucifix with Mary Magdalene by Alessandro Vasta.
Visiting
After part of the dome's frieze fell on Christmas Eve 2008, the church stayed closed for five years and reopened on 17 November 2013. Opening hours should be checked with the parish.
Our editors' tip
In the sacristy, with its eighteenth-century wooden furniture, look at the floor of glazed lava stone in blue and pink, with the arms of the parish and of the saint at its centre.
