San Martino dei Bianchi is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church located on Corso Vittorio Emanuele #191 (with an entrance at Via San martino 24) in the center of

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

, southern Italy.

History and description

The present church, with its undulating late-

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

facade, was built in the 18th century, commissioned by the Arch-confraternity of the Bianchi, based on designs by the architect

Stefano Ittar Stefano Ittar (March 15, 1724 – January 18, 1790) was a Polish-Italian architect. Biography Ittar was born in Owrucz (then in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, now in Ukraine), where his father, a member of one of Italy's aristocratic f ...

(1724-1790). The previous church of the lay confraternity had been destroyed in the 1693 earthquake. The confraternity provided comfort and burial assistance to those condemned to death.Fondoambiente Italia
entry on church. Further down along Via San Martino, at number 10 on the second floor, a plaque commemorates the inn where

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

stayed during his ''

Italian Journey ''Italian Journey'' (in the German original: ) is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's report on his travels to Italy from 1786 to 1788 that was published in 1816 & 1817. The book is based on Goethe's diaries and is smoothed in style, lacks the sponta ...

'' through Catania in 1787.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martino Bianchi Catania 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Roman Catholic churches in Catania