The church of Santa Maria di Gesù in Alcamo was born in the fifteenth century beside the friary of the Friars Minor of the Observance founded by the Blessed Arcangelo of Calatafimi; in 1484 the castellan Giovanni di Sanclemente, a Catalan nobleman, asked in his will to be buried there and left funds to build it. Originally it stood outside the walls, in open country, and around 1500 it gave its name to one of the town gates, the Porta di Gesù. In 1507 it was rebuilt and enlarged with funds from the lords of Alcamo, Federico Enriquez and Anna Cabrera; between 1762 and 1776 it was enlarged again, and in 1920 it became a parish.
What to see
The entrance doorway, of 1507 in Carrara marble, is attributed to Bartolomeo Berrettaro or, according to others, to Giuliano Mancino. On the high altar is a marble statue of Santa Maria di Gesù, probably by the same two sculptors. On the first altar on the right is the Madonna delle Grazie, known as the Greek Madonna, attributed to Pietro Ruzzolone of Palermo and commissioned by Federico Enriquez and Anna Cabrera, who appear kneeling with three pages and three damsels.
In the chapel to the right of the entrance is the marble Eucharistic tabernacle by Baldassare Massa of 1557, gilded by Giovan Leonardo Bagolino, with the Last Supper at its base. In the baptistery are a small Saint John the Baptist by Giuliano Mancino and two medallions of the Gagini school; on the vault the Assumption by Leopoldo Messina and three frescoes by Carlo Righetti of 1901 on the life of Saint Francis; on the walls the Stations of the Cross by Friar Felice da Sambuca, of 1785-1786, and canvases by Tommaso Pollaci of 1788. On the entrance wall are two Baroque funerary monuments of the Aversa family.
Visiting
In 1997 the presbytery was renewed to a design by the architect Vincenzo Settipani. In 1979 the canvas of Saint Didacus of Alcalá of 1591 and Giuseppe Renda's Our Lady of Sorrows were stolen from the church. Mass and opening times should be checked with the diocese of Trapani.
Our editors' tip
At the foot of the Greek Madonna a glass urn has held since 1961 the remains of the Blessed Arcangelo, brought from the church of San Michele in Calatafimi; on a wall is his tombstone, with the book of the Rule in his hands.
