The church of the Santissimo Salvatore, also called the Badia Grande, stands in Alcamo beside the convent of the same name, now a school. It already existed at the start of the fourteenth century: it is mentioned in a document of 1308 on the collection of the papal tithe. It was rebuilt in the mid-sixteenth century and again between 1690 and 1697; in 1737 it was restored and decorated with stucco, and it reopened in 1759. After the 1968 earthquake it stayed closed for many years.
What to see
The classical façade is topped by a square bell tower with four round arches. The interior has a single nave with a barrel vault and five altars, and ten stucco statues of 1758 by Bartolomeo Sanseverino, a pupil of Serpotta: two large angels in the presbytery and eight allegorical figures, including Religion, Faith, Patience, Charity and Hope. On the high altar is the Transfiguration by Carlo Brunetti, of 1759-1760, who also painted the vault frescoes; on the side altars are the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa and the Assumption, attributed to Pietro Novelli.
Among the works stands out the Eucharistic tabernacle, a marble high relief about four metres tall carved by Antonino Gagini and completed by Baldassare Massa between 1557 and 1558, commissioned by the abbess Margherita de Montesa: the ciborium between four kneeling angels, the Crucifix, scenes of the Passion and the arms of Alcamo and of the abbess; in 1558 Giovan Leonardo Bagolino gilded it. There is also a marble Saint Benedict by Antonino Gagini of 1545.
Visiting
The convent took in nuns from noble families, who made objects in enamel-work and wax modelling; suppressed in 1906, it now houses the Pietro Maria Rocca school. In the church the Jacopone da Todi choir holds sacred singing activities, usually on Sunday afternoons and Wednesday evenings: times should be checked.
Our editors' tip
In 1981 the ovals of the Annunciation by Baldassare Massa and two high reliefs were stolen; a citizens' committee bought them back at auction at Sotheby's in London in 1994, except the oval of the Madonna.
