The Convento del Carmine is a historic complex in the western part of Marsala, in the Annunziata district, where the Carmelites built the church and the convent, in a piazza del Carmine that is a nearly rectangular widening of a street of Lilybaeum's ancient layout and where the Baroque palazzo Grignani also stands.
What to see
The complex that has come down to us is made up of three parts: the church, the convent and the bell tower. The church of the Annunziata was renewed after 1490: the older church became the sacristy of the new one and the houses were turned into chapels, one of which, dedicated to Saint Onuphrius, became the burial place of the Petrulla family; in 1500 a chapel was raised for the Grignani family, where the statue of the Madonna del Popolo by Domenico Gagini was placed, today in Marsala cathedral. In front of the entrance is a portico with calcarenite stone columns, with three archways and the central arch wider, later raised and covered by cross vaults; the entrance portal is the only one fully answering to Renaissance canons, while the first-floor windows above the portico and the convent portal are dated 1650. In the Baroque period the layout was redesigned as a single nave covered by a lunetted vault.
The collapse of the roof of the late-Baroque church and the destruction of most of the furnishings after the bombing have badly compromised the monument, which for years was used as the municipal library; in 1996, after the restoration of the San Pietro monastery, the library returned to its original home, while the municipal historical archive stayed in the church. After a further partial restoration, at the end of 2024 and the start of 2025, in January 2025 the church was reopened for worship after eighty-two years of closure, with a solemn celebration presided over by the bishop of Mazara del Vallo; the statues of Saint Peter and Saint Paul and other works from the church of Santi Pietro e Paolo, closed for works, have been temporarily moved there.
Visiting
The complex is on piazza del Carmine, in the Annunziata district, in Marsala. The sources consulted give no opening hours: these should be checked.
Our editors' tip
Look at the octagonal bell tower, with a central spiral staircase in calcarenite stone: according to the tradition reported in the sources, when it rang «a mortorio» it swayed, terrifying anyone inside, and it was counted among the artistic marvels of the city. As early as 1684 it was restored with the foundations rebuilt and reaches us in its eighteenth-century version.
