The chapel is the result of a merger: two small adjoining churches, San Crispino, founded in 1580, and San Biagio, of 1502, both belonging to the Martino family, at some point became a single building. The dedication to Saint Blaise had itself come here from an older church outside the walls; according to the local historian Bianca, in 1660 the church received relics of the saint brought from Rome.
What to see
Outside everything is plain: a gabled front, a doorway topped by a pediment and above it a wide arched window. The bell tower rises only a little above the roofline and has a semicircular window at the top; two more open on one flank. Anyone walking past in a hurry takes it for a house.
Inside the space is square, with stucco mouldings; the entrance is framed by two columns carrying an arch, and a modest recess at the back holds the altar. This is a neighbourhood church, built for a handful of families, and every measurement says so.
Visiting
It stands on the north side of via XXV Novembre in Cefalù, a few steps from the Lavatoio Medievale, which in 1514 was pulled down and rebuilt further back from the city walls: a stone staircase leads down to the basins, fed by twenty-two cast-iron spouts, fifteen of them shaped as lions' heads. The water leaves towards the sea through a small cavity. The chapel opens rarely, usually for services; walking round the outside takes five minutes and is reason enough for the detour, because you see how the little church, the Martino palace and the wash house worked as one piece of town.
Our editors' tip
We stop here in mid-morning, coming down from the cathedral towards the harbour: five minutes at the wash house, where the air is several degrees cooler, then the alley that leads to the sea. If you find the chapel door open, go in: it happens rarely and it takes a minute.
