The Oratorio dei Bianchi is a

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

chapel or prayer room located on the Piazzeta dei Bianchi, about equidistant between the churches of

Santa Maria dello Spasimo Santa Maria dello Spasimo, or Lo Spasimo, is an unfinished Catholic church in the Kalsa neighborhood in Palermo, Sicily, on Via dello Spasimo. Construction of the church and accompanying monastery of the Olivetan Order began in 1509 with a papal ...

and

Santa Teresa alla Kalsa The Church of Saint Teresa (Italian language, Italian: Chiesa di Santa Teresa or Santa Teresa alla Kalsa) is a Baroque architecture, Baroque Roman Catholic church, located on Piazza della Kalsa, facing the ''Porta de Greci'' (now Palazzo Forcella ...

in the quarter of the Kalsa, within the historic centre of Palermo, region of Sicily, Italy.

History

This peculiar oratory is composed of diverse components incongruently linked. The main oratory was built in 1686, after a fire in 1600 destroyed the prior church of ''Santa Maria della Vittoria'', initially built by the Minims order in 1477. This ancient church was dedicated to the Virgin and contained the tag ''della Vittoria'', because in the 11th-century, the Normans under

Robert Guiscard Robert Guiscard (; Modern ; – 17 July 1085) was a Norman adventurer remembered for the conquest of southern Italy and Sicily. Robert was born into the Hauteville family in Normandy, went on to become count and then duke of Apulia and Calabri ...

had been able to enter the besieged Saracen city through a gate at this site. The ground floor of the exterior is made from large stone blocks with masks sculpted in the arch keystones. The second story has a more sober facade with Corinthian pilasters. The confraternity or ''Compagnia del SS. Crocifisso'' was also called the ''Company of the bianchi or whites'' due to their white processional gowns. Their main charity was to accompany and minister to those condemned for execution. The interiors have a few stucco sculptures completed by Serpotta and his family, The main meeting room for the members was frescoed in 1776 by

Gaspare Fumagalli Gaspare (also ''Gaspero'', ''Gasperino'' and ''Gasparro'') is an Italian male given name, the literal translation of the English name Casper and Jasper (French Gaspard, Scandinavian Kasper and Jesper). The name is rare in contemporary times, but ...

in a neoclassical style. Palermo Tourism site

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oratory Bianchi Palermo Bianchi Neoclassical architecture in Palermo 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Neoclassical church buildings in Italy