place

San Gaetano alle Grotte, Catania

Roman Catholic churches in Catania
San Gaetano alle Grotte (Catania) 30 12 2019 02
San Gaetano alle Grotte (Catania) 30 12 2019 02

San Gaetano alle Grotte is a church in Catania, region of Sicily, southern Italy. The flank of this small church faces Piazza Carlo Alberto where the minor basilica church of the Santuario della Madonna del Carmine is located. , The substructure of the church is ancient, putatively built circa 260-300 as a chapel, perhaps a burial chapel, in a lava cave in use as a cistern, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In the seventh century, a church was built atop, once called Santa Maria La Grotta. In the 8th century, the Muslims either demolished or abandoned that structure. The Norman rulers, restores a church and added the large columns of the upper presbytery. The church was razed by the 1693 Sicily earthquake, and reconstruction was pursued for nearly the entire 18th century, completed only in 1801. The remaining access for the crypt was a steep narrow staircase. In 1958, the church and crypt were restored by the Carmelite friars.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article San Gaetano alle Grotte, Catania (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

San Gaetano alle Grotte, Catania
Via Giovanni Pacini, Catania Centro storico

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: San Gaetano alle Grotte, CataniaContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 37.508747579815 ° E 15.088101181702 °
placeShow on map

Address

Fiera di Catania

Via Giovanni Pacini
Catania, Centro storico
Sicily, Italy
mapOpen on Google Maps

San Gaetano alle Grotte (Catania) 30 12 2019 02
San Gaetano alle Grotte (Catania) 30 12 2019 02
Share experience

Nearby Places

Palazzo Gioeni Asmundo
Palazzo Gioeni Asmundo

The Palazzo Gioeni Asmundo is an notable palace located on via Fragalà #10 facing Piazza dell'Università in the center of Catania, region of Sicily, southern Italy. The building, like the two other prominent palaces facing this piazza, now houses offices of the University of Catania. The palace design is attributed, like much of Baroque Catania, to Giovanni Battista Vaccarini. It was commissioned by the then Duke Gioeni d'Angiò and completed in 1743. The base is made with dark lava stones, and the palace is framed with blocks of white stone forming pillars. The piano nobile (third floor) has a number of balconies with metal balustrades. The central portico and third floor windows have elegant stone pediments with grotesque masks. The palace underwent an extensive remodeling in 1966. Most notable on the facade is a bronze sculptural monument honoring Giuseppe Gioeni d'Angiò (Catania, 12 May 1743 – Catania, 6 December 1822). Giuseppe, son of the duke who commissioned the palace, achieved prominence for his writings about geology and the volcanos of Campania and Sicily. He was an avid collector of mineral and natural artifacts. He obtained a doctorate in philosophy and was made professor of Botanical and Natural History at the University of Catania. However his participation in politics during the turbulent Napoleonic era, led to his exile, and later imprisonment by the Bourbon authorities. The monument was completed in 1920 by Mario Rutelli, crowns his portrait with a complex Hapsburg coat of arms and a coat of arms for his family. A local scientific society, Accademia Gioenia, is named in his honor.

Palazzo delle Poste, Catania
Palazzo delle Poste, Catania

The Palazzo delle Poste is an notable building, called a palace, but built for and still housing postal offices. It stands on the west corner of Via Etnea, #288, where it intersects with the start of the Giardino Bellini. The postal building is a neo-baroque creation of the architect Francesco Fichera. Construction began in 1922 and were complete only in 1930. The three facades, along via Etnea, via Angelo Litrico, and via Sant'Euplio are similar. All contain a rusticated ground level set upon a base of dark lava stone. The ground floor is an row of arches, each with a keystone marked by a grotesque mask. The second floors have convex balconies framed by pilasters surmounted by a tympanum with a broken pediment. Behind the balconies are tall glass doors with delicate frames. The decoration throughout is often playful and imaginative. At the northeast corner, some of the decorations are cornucopias, but others appear to resemble complex starfish. The tympanum at this corner has a shell flanked by fish. The metal grate has a liberty style design. The interior courtyard now obscured by further construction, was nearly devoid of such decoration and has a simplistic brick detail more common in Fascist architecture of the time. However, the lively facade distinctly avoids the severe sobriety of contemporary "rationalist" architecture of postal offices such as the Poste palace of Palermo and the Poste palace of Naples. The architect Fichera also designed the Garage Musumeci in Catania.