The sanctuary of Saint Anthony of Padua, with the convent of the Observant Friars Minor, stands in the Sant'Antonino district of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto and has been a diocesan sanctuary since 24 May 1986. On 14 October 1613 the friars obtained land from the town of Castroreale in the village of Barcellona, in the Finocchito area, to build a small church; the convent was canonically established in 1622 thanks to the benefactors Placido Rao and Dominichella Coppolino.
What to see
On the right side portal is a marble relief of Saint Anthony from 1633-1635 and the inscription «PERAMABILIS S. ANTONINUS». The church has a single wide nave with side altars and a large choir loft over the entrance. On the walls, frescoes of 1714 tell the saint's miracles, such as the amputated foot, the mule of Bonvillo and the sermon to the fish, commissioned by members of the Saccano family and, in one case, by the captain of justice of Castroreale.
The altarpieces include the Madonna dell'Idria with Basilian monks by Filippo Jannelli, from 1656, and Pietro Cannata's Saint Didacus, signed under the saint's foot «PETRO CANNATA PINGEBAT 1650». The 1985 restoration uncovered a seventeenth-century fresco of the Sorrowing Virgin and Saint John at the foot of the cross; on the altar is a fifteenth-century wooden crucifix by Pietro della Comunella, and the stained-glass windows by fra Alberto Farina, from 1995, show among other scenes the miracle of the miser's heart.
Visiting
The convent cloister has porticoes of five arches on each side, and on the east wall fragments of old frescoes survive. Opening times should be checked with the convent.
Our editors' tip
The convent has had an eventful history: confiscated in 1866 and used as a nursery school, in 1868 it became artillery quarters and a firing range, with the church deconsecrated and turned into a stable until 1892; from 1899 it housed tobacco processing, before returning to the friars between 1936 and 1950.
