The church of Sant'Antonio Abate stands on a hill in the quarter of the same name, on the far western edge of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, and gives the district its name. It began as a tiny church of the village of Centineo: around 1590 the jurats of Castroreale used the taxes on the pastures of the area called «Garrisi di Sant'Antonio», overlooked by the little church, to fund the building of the duomo of Santa Maria Assunta and the upkeep of the church of the Santissimo Salvatore. A first rebuilding took place in the first half of the seventeenth century.
What to see
In 1731 the church depended on the Greek-rite church of Santa Maria della Visitazione in Centineo. A hermit placed in charge of it built a new church with alms, and a second hermit enlarged and embellished it with three chapels, dedicated to Saint Anthony Abbot, the Holy Crucifix and Our Lady of the Rosary. From 1821 it came under the archpriesthood of San Sebastiano, and on 21 February 1943 it became an independent parish. In 1905 the front was extended, shrinking the churchyard that had previously reached as far as the bell tower.
The interior has a single nave, with altars along the walls and statues in niches: on the right Saint Joseph with the child Jesus and the Immaculate Conception carved by Matteo Trovato, on the left Mary Help of Christians, Saint Rita and the Pietà.
Visiting
Restoration in the nineteen-sixties changed the building a great deal: the buttresses on the west side were demolished to widen the road and the original wooden roof was replaced by a modern one. Further work followed the earthquake of 16 April 1978 and in the nineties. Mass times should be checked with the parish.
Our editors' tip
Look at the base of the holy-water stoup: the inscription «FIERI FECIT BERNARDUS BENEDICTUS ET CASALAINA. 1637» is the evidence of the seventeenth-century rebuilding.
