The church of Gesù e Maria stands in the Pizzo Castello quarter of old Pozzo di Gotto. It is home to one of the town's oldest confraternities, the Congregation of Jesus and Mary, founded before 1579 in the original church of Sant'Andrea on the Serro di Sant'Andrea, where the Carmelites later settled; today it is called the Confraternity of Saint Eusentius under the title of Jesus and Mary. By two deeds of the notary Simone Coppolino, dated 3 January 1622 and 16 January 1626, Placido Zangla and his brother Giambattista, a priest from Castroreale, gave the confraternity land to build the new church without delay.
What to see
Inside are three paintings attributed to Filippo Jannelli: Saint Blaise, Saint Auxentius, dated 1677, and the Madonna Hodegetria with Saints Cosmas and Damian. There is also a Triumph of the Cross, known as Jesus and Mary, by an unknown and probably local artist.
There is also the statue of the Ecce Homo, carved between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which on Good Friday is carried in procession on one of the small floats representing the moments of the Passion.
Visiting
The church is the starting and finishing point of the Good Friday processions of the archpriesthood of Pozzo di Gotto, before they gather in front of the duomo of Santa Maria Assunta. Openings and times should be checked with the duomo parish.
Our editors' tip
On Easter Monday, after the evening mass, the confraternity members take the Ecce Homo off its float and set it on the ground for the devotion of the faithful, before returning it to its altar.
