Santuario di Santa Maria della Stella
Photo: Matteo Malgioglio, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
It was opened for worship in 1741. The temple, dedicated to the Madonna della Stella, the main patron saint of the city, is located at the top of a wide staircase and has a harmonious façade full of carvings, flanked by a mighty bell tower. The design of the facade is due to the architect Giuseppe Ferrara da Palazzolo Acreide, the valuable eighteenth-century stuccos that decorate the interior are by Onofrio Russo from Agrigento of the Serpotta school. The interior, with a basilica plan with three naves, has twelve altars and is divided by graceful pillars that support the large barrel vault decorated in stucco and frescoed by the Militellese painter Giuseppe Barone (1947). The frescoes on the vault depict: the Presentation in the Temple, the Annunciation and the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin. Among the numerous masterpieces of art kept in it we find: the precious statue in wood and hemp of the Madonna della Stella (1618), object of a special cult and devotion for centuries, restored in 1693 following the earthquake by the sculptor Camillo Confalone, and enthroned in the days of the annual feast within a rich eighteenth-century wooden fercolo; a grandiose altarpiece by Olivio Sozzi depicting the Nativity of Mary, framed by a wooden machine from 1753; the valuable wooden statue of Christ at the column (1630), attributed to friar Umile da Petralia but rebuilt in 1693 by Gaetano Frazzetto from Militello; numerous valuable canvases with rich wooden zecchino frames, such as the one depicting the Martyrdom of San Bartolomeo from 1694; the stone sarcophagi of the feudal lords of the city from the 15th and 16th centuries, testimony of the Royal Patronage which the church enjoyed until 1788 and of its antiquity as a sacramental church of the city. The church also preserves the extraordinary altarpiece in glazed terracotta by the Florentine sculptor Andrea della Robbia depicting the Nativity of Jesus (1487), from Santa Maria la Vetere.
Santa Maria della Stella is a Roman Catholic parish church located on Via Porta della Terra in Militello in Val di Catania in the region of Sicily, Italy.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
ex Tinnirello, ex Interlandi di Bellaprima
It dates back to the 17th-18th centuries. It has an elegant carved window, in Mannerist style, on whose tympanum there is a marble heraldic coat of arms. It first belonged to the Calatina family of the Interlandi princes of Bellaprima (the parish priest of San Nicola don Lorenzo Interlandi lived there), in the first half of the 18th century it passed to the illustrious Tinnirello family from Militello who lived there until 1921, hosting the ground floor homonymous pharmacy, and finally to the Oliva family.
or "dei Leoni"
Rare testimony of 16th-century civil construction, the enormous building was commissioned by the Barresi family as the seat of the jury court and the capital court (the two main administrative bodies of the city). Although remodeled in later periods, and owned several times (including the Majorana-Cocuzzella barons of Nicchiara), it has the original ashlar cantonals, enriched by severe stone lions from the Middle Ages recovered from older buildings.
ex Constantine, ex Reforgiato di Linziti
Its construction was completed in 1771, and has six balconies with late Baroque frames and corbels. Wanted by Baron Reforgiato of Linziti, it later passed to the Costantino family and then to the Iatrini. It was used until the 1960s as the seat of the Tax Agency and then as a religious house. Today it is owned by the parish of S. Maria della Stella.
Municipal Auditorium
The Dominican friars arrived in Militello in 1536, at the behest of the Barresi, and here they settled at the Annunziata church outside the city, remaining there until the early 1600s. Subsequently, Prince Francesco Branciforte, to facilitate control over the population by the Holy Inquisition, wanted to transfer the seat of the Dominicans to the city, and had them build the new church and the new convent which were inaugurated in 1613. Damaged by the earthquake of 1693, both were soon redone. The church that can be seen today, one of the largest in Militello, is characterized by a large classical façade, with a spire-shaped tympanum, and a hall-like interior, decorated with stuccos, with a deep presbytery. Inside it housed six stone chapels with carvings, among which the one of the Madonna del Rosario stood out with a canvas by Mario Minniti from 1620 (now lost). Although the convent and the church suffered the effects of the suppression of 1866, the latter continued to function until the mid-1900s, when it was now unsafe and finally stripped of all its furnishings and abandoned (some surviving works are in Santa Maria della Stella and in San Benedetto). The premises of the convent instead housed a kindergarten (Asilo Laganà Campisi), schools and private homes. Fortunately, the entire complex was recovered and enhanced in the early 2000s. The church is now used as a Municipal Auditorium, while the former convent houses a conference room, the "Angelo Majorana" Municipal Library, the Civic Museum, the Historical Archive and the Civic Art Gallery "
Chiesa del Santissimo Sacramento al Circolo
Votive church built in the second decade of the 18th century, based on a project by the Militellese architect Don Antonino Scirè Giarro, it was intended for the perpetual exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. It has a singular carved Baroque facade with a concave Borrominian profile, surmounted by a bell loggia with a three-light fan profile. Inside, decorated with elegant stuccoes in the late Baroque style, it preserves the valuable statue with its fercolo of Sant'Antonio Abate in the chair of 1575, the work of the Bivonese sculptor Antonio De Mauro, coming from the church of S. Antonio Abate. Of particular interest is the predella of the statue of the saint with scenes from his life depicted in relief. A tombstone from 1724 (today exhibited in the Treasury of S. Maria della Stella) remembers the spouses Alfio Palermo and Fortunata of the barons Lamia, benefactors of the church, buried here. The church also has two interesting frescoes, on the pillars of the large chapel of the presbytery, depicting the coat of arms of the Bourbons of Naples and Sicily in the two different elaborations, of Charles III and Ferdinand III of Sicily.
formerly Caruso della Sanzà and Rossitto
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.