Santa Maria dell'Indirizzo is a deconsecrated

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 ...

church located on the piazza of the same name corso in the center of the city of

Catania Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...

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

, southern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It is affiliated with the ''Istituto Comprensivo Amerigo Vespucci'', a local school, which now occupies the former convent of the

Discalced Carmelites The Discalced Carmelites, known officially as the Order of the Discalced Carmelites of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel ( la, Ordo Fratrum Carmelitarum Discalceatorum Beatae Mariae Virginis de Monte Carmelo) or the Order of Discalced Carme ...

monks, with which the church was once associated. Of greater interest, and better maintained, are the small ruins of a former Ancient Roman baths or

thermae In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large Roman Empire, imperial public bath, bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed i ...

, named Terme dell'Indirizzo, located behind the apse of the church.

History and description

The church and convent acquired the suffix of ''Indirizzo'' or of ''the direction'' due to a local legend according to which, in 1610, Don Pedro Téllez-Girón, Duke of Osuna and Viceroy of Sicily, managed to escape a terrible storm thanks to the appearance of a light that would guide him to a safe harbor. To thank the Virgin for this miraculous intercession, the church was erected. In the early 17th-century, the land was given to the Carmelite Reformed Fathers, up to that moment stationed in the church of Santa Maria in Mano Santa, located in what is now Piazza Dante. Presently the church appears externally in a poor state. The church facade is mainly flat and sober, framed by straight pilasters. The main portal is accessed by a double single flight staircases. The side-doors have some of the playful

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 ...

decoration typical of Catanian 18th-century churches. The thermae behind the church are visible from the street. They appear to date to the late imperial age (3rd-5th century AD). By the late medieval era, the structures were used as shops or warehouses, and the origin became obscured. Observations by the antiquarian and early archeologist

Ignazio Paternò Castello Ignazio Paternò Castello, Prince of Biscari (1722 - 1 September 1786) was an Italian polymath, antiquarian, and patron of the arts, who lived most of his life in his native Catania in Sicily. Biography Born to a wealthy noble family, he studied ...

, who lived in the nearby

Palazzo Biscari The Palazzo Biscari is a monumental private palace located on Via Museo Biscari in Catania, Sicily, southern Italy. The highly decorative interiors are open for guided tours, and used for social and cultural events. History and Description Afte ...

interpreted the structures as a former Roman bath. While small, they seem to contain separate rooms for a

caldarium 230px, Caldarium from the Roman Baths at Bath, England. The floor has been removed to reveal the empty space where the hot air flowed through to heat the floor. A caldarium (also called a calidarium, cella caldaria or cella coctilium) was a room ...

and

frigidarium A frigidarium is one of the three main bath chambers of a Roman bath or ''thermae'', namely the cold room. It often contains a swimming pool. The succession of bathing activities in the ''thermae'' is not known with certainty, but it is thought ...

. They are one of various such thermae ruins in Catania.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maria dell'Indirizzo Roman Catholic churches in Catania 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy