Santa Maria del Suffragio 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 ...

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

parish church located in central

Acireale Acireale (; scn, Jaciriali, locally shortened to ''Jaci'' or ''Aci'') is a coastal city and ''comune'' in the north-east of the Metropolitan City of Catania, Sicily, southern Italy, at the foot of Mount Etna, on the coast facing the Ionian Sea. ...

in the region of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

of Italy. The church is located at the end of Via Romero, where the strada del la Marina leads through an opening in the town walls to the Fortezza del Tocco and to the seaside.

History and description

Construction of the original church at this site was pursued between 1634 and 1638, commissioned by Giuseppe Costarella, and also patronized by this port-side neighborhood, then populated by fishermen, artisans and shopkeepers, and a local Archconfraternity titled ''della Domenica''. Spared destruction by the 1693 earthquake, in the early 17th century, the interior was refurbished by

Pietro Paolo Vasta Piero or Pietro Paolo Vasta (31 July 1697 - 28 November 1760) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, mainly active in the east of his native Sicily. Biography He was born in Acireale. and initially trained with both the painters Giacint ...

, who painted the frescoes on the walls and ceilings. In 1905 the church was declared a national monument.Parco Culturale Ecclesia - Terre dell'Etna e dell'Alcantara
website, entry on church, texts by Anna Coco, Maria Coco, Antonella Agata Di Gregorio.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maria Suffragio Acireale 17th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Roman Catholic churches in Acireale