Church of Santa Maria dello Spasimo

Dedicated to the hermit saint of Noblac, the church was built in the mid-16th century as the seat of a brotherhood. Subsequently the Brancifortes wanted to add a cenoby to it to transfer the Reformed Augustinian friars of the Sicilian Centorbina Congregation who until then were housed in a small convent outside the city (today called the Conventazzu). The works were completed in 1630 and the following year the friars moved there. The church and convent were not damaged by the earthquake of 1693. However, following the suppression of ecclesiastical bodies in 1866, the church went into disuse (also due to the lowering of the street level which made access to it impracticable), while the premises of the convent were used as public schools until the 1950s. The entire complex is now in ruins. Of the church, the 17th-century stuccos and the remains of the high altar inside are barely visible. Outside, the front of the entrance door has a frieze with the monogram of Christ inscribed in a sun with twelve rays and an epigraph with the dedication to the titular saint dated 1638. There was a beautiful 17th-century statue depicting San Leonardo Abate, a refined alabaster Madonna of Trapani from the 1400s and numerous other works of art (canvases, marbles and sacred furnishings) now exhibited at the San Nicolò Museum. A papier-mâché statue of Saint Monica (mother of Saint Augustine) was modified to represent the more popular Saint Rita (Augustinian nun) and placed in the mother church of San Nicola.

The church is mentioned for the first time in a bishop's decree of 1503. It was built for devotional purposes on top of the Caruso hill, in a dominant position over the town, in memory of Golgotha. Later the confraternity of the SS. Crocifisso al Calvario will assume its care and administration. In the following century it was enlarged and assumed the shape of a cross with the addition of three apses surmounted by an octagonal blind lantern, as seen today. The valuable carved chapel with reliquary of the high altar belongs to this building phase. Damaged by the earthquake of 1693 (many faithful gathered in prayer died in the collapse), in the mid-18th century it was repaired and enriched with stuccos, new altars, sacred furnishings and a valuable Crucifix object of particular veneration in Lent. In 1740 the Catanese painter Giovanni Meli was commissioned to paint the large canvases placed along the walls of the nave, depicting: Christ on Calvary (stolen), Christ mocked, Christ scourged and Christ in the garden. In 1762 the Catania architect Francesco Battaglia designed the original portico that closes the facade, under which the famous and evocative rite of the crucifixion and deposition of Jesus takes place every year on Good Friday.

It was built in the early 17th century. It is the seat of the "Pro Loco" Tourist Association. It too has balconies decorated with rich Baroque carvings in the corbels and pilasters. It belonged to Signora Denaro, widow Basso La Bianca.

Built in the 18th century, it has a very rich telamon portal. It is one of the most beautiful examples of post-earthquake aristocratic building.

It was built in the 18th century and occupies an entire block. It has six balconies with rich masked corbels and festoons in the pilasters. It is enriched by a luxuriant garden which is now surrounded by a wall. It belonged to the noble Caruso family, whose main branch died out at the end of the 18th century, with the baron Don Antonino Caruso who died childless; while the secondary branch in the early years of the 19th century, with Donna Marianna Caruso-Scuderi, married to Antonino Malgioglio and Cardaci di Ramacca.

It is a large building that closes off Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II for an entire side. In addition to the size, this eighteenth-century building is characterized by the remarkable Baroque carvings of the balconies and the large ashlar portal surmounted by the noble coat of arms.