16/10/2014
The Cathedral of Santa Maria la Nova was built between the years 1560-1620 and was opened to the public in 1622. The façade was completed in the year 1840. The church has a late-Renaissance appearance that breaks the characteristic Baroque mold of most of the island of Sicily. Inside are frescoes by the Flemish painter Guglielmo Borremans, who worked here from 1722. Other works include a wooden Blessed Virgin draped in silver lamina (1760) and a polychrome wooden statue of St. Michael the Archangel by the sculptor Stefano Li Volsi, located in a large chapel of the aisle with two marble statues portraying the Archangels Gabriel and Raphael by artist Vincenzo Vitaliano. The Treasury houses a fine silver monstrance from the 15th century.
