The church of the Santissimo Crocifisso is a rectory church in the San Giovanni quarter of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, in the parish of San Giovanni Battista. It was built from 18 December 1663 at the wish of don Tommaso Cocuzza of Castroreale, who by his will endowed it with property and founded a benefice for the celebration of masses, first as a lay chaplaincy and then as a rectory with the right to elect its own chaplain. These were the years when the plain between Milazzo and Patti was filling with people, at the expense of the royal town of Castroreale.
What to see
The façade has twin bell towers, like San Giovanni Battista, the Immacolata and Maria Santissima del Tindari: the two turrets, originally topped by small Arab-style domes, have had pyramidal spires on octagonal bases with crosses since 1954. The interior has a single nave, with a triumphal arch and cornice decorated in stucco. In the right chapel is the group of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii, from 1952; in the left one the wooden statue of Saint Rita signed and dated 1946 by the Barcellona sculptor Salvatore Crinò.
In the presbytery, in a niche, is the crucifix that the archpriest of Castroreale Giovanni Cutrupia described in 1731 on the church's only altar; beside it are a tomb slab in mixed marbles and the statue of Saint Nicholas of Bari, the first patron of Barcellona.
Visiting
After the laws of 1866 the church's property passed to the State by a ruling of 1897; restoration followed between 1949 and 1954 for war damage and between 1980 and 1982, when the tower clock was installed. Openings and times should be checked with the parish of San Giovanni Battista.
Our editors' tip
The confraternity of the Holy Crucifix, founded on 2 June 1705, escaped suppression after Italian unification by opening membership to every social class: it was this decision that allowed the church to reopen for worship.
