The church of the Anime Purganti, once the oratory of the Souls in Purgatory, stands in the heart of old Pozzo di Gotto, built against the old duomo of San Vito. The oratory was founded on 16 December 1663 on buildings and land given by the priest Mario Catalfamo, where a chapel to the holy souls built by Diego Fiorello in 1658 already stood. Two confraternities are based here: that of Purgatory, founded the same day as the oratory, and that of the Blessed Sacrament, founded on 18 April 1715.
What to see
The church has a single barrel-vaulted nave. The walls of the presbytery are decorated with Baroque stucco in the style of Serpotta, with life-size figures of female saints, including Saint Agatha and Saint Barbara with her tower. The high altar has an inlaid marble frontal and a tabernacle in the form of a small colonnaded temple; the large gilded frame that now holds a crucifix probably contained Pietro Cannata's painting of the Trinity and the souls in purgatory, which was stolen. On the walls are an Ascension and an Assumption from the second half of the seventeenth century and carved wooden stalls.
In the right arch is the altar of Saint Vitus, with the martyr's wooden statue; on the left opens the chapel of the Crucifix, with a seventeenth-century wooden crucifix. The church also keeps the Scourged Christ and the papier-mâché Sorrowing Virgin that are mounted on the floats of the Good Friday procession.
Visiting
Beneath the floor is a crypt, recently restored by the Superintendency and open to visitors. Opening times should be checked with the parish.
Our editors' tip
On 15 June, the feast of Saint Vitus, the celebrations start from the duomo of Santa Maria Assunta and end in this church; on 15 September the Sorrowing Virgin is commemorated here.
