Santi Cosma e Damiano (or ''Santa Chiara'') is a

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 in Alcamo, in the province of Trapani,

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 ...

. This

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 ...

church was built around 1500 after the plan of Giuseppe Mariani and rebuilt between 1721 and 1725.

Description

The church has one

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and presents a tambour which inside repeats the shape of the main body with a hexagonal plan, while the chapels are delimited by some pillars in

Corinthian style The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...

. Thanks to its restyling probably inspired by the Roman church of Saint Ives alla Sapienza by the architect

Francesco Borromini Francesco Borromini (, ), byname of Francesco Castelli (; 25 September 1599 – 2 August 1667), was an Italian architect born in the modern Swiss canton of Ticino

, it became in 1725 an example of the most beautiful Sicilian baroque.

Santa Chiara's nunnery

Adjoining the church is Saint Clare's nunnery and it was annexed during the years 1545-1547. In 1545 three noble sisters (Antonina, Angela and Alberta Mompilieri), together with some devout women founded a convent of Poor Clares and were assigned the adjoining church of the Saints Cosma and Damiano's Church. Owing to the 1866 Laws the western wing of the building was confiscated: there was an

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

for about a century, in 1958 it was demolished and the central

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

was built. Some years ago the nuns bought the first floor of this building, thanks to the believers' offerings and some other contributions. The Clares of this convent, besides taking part in the religious rites in the Church with their

chants A chant (from French ', from Latin ', "to sing") is the iterative speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two main pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of notes ...

, have helped in the birth and revival of other nunneries in

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

and

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

. Moreover, they made crafts and sweets, ceroplastics and enamelled objects. Nowadays they make

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...

holy paraments, embroidered with gold and silver threads, or embellished with gems and pieces of

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

; they also prepare

hosts A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places *Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County People *Jim Host (born 1937), American businessman *Michel Host ( ...

for several churches.

Works

The interior, organically arranged with its various elements, is embellished by the

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

es made by Francesco Guastalla and Vincenzo Perez in 1722, and by those realized by Gabriele Messina in 1757. Inside the church there are also: * two paintings made by the

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

painter Guglielmo Borremans: one of them (on the high altar) represents the

Immaculate The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...

, the other (on the second right altar) Our Lady presenting the Infant Jesus to Saint Clare (1722); * a wooden

crucifix A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...

dated to the 17th century, on the second left altar; * two paintings made in the 17th century by Andrea Carrera from

Trapani Trapani ( , ; scn, Tràpani ; lat, Drepanum; grc, Δρέπανον) is a city and municipality (''comune'') on the west coast of Sicily, in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an impor ...

representing Our Lady of Rosary (1658, on the first left altar) and Our Lady with Angels (1669, on the second right altar); * two statues made in 1722 by Giacomo Serpotta representing

Justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

and Charity. Inside the nunnery there is the Madonna di Passavia (Our Lady of Passavia), a painting made by

Giuseppe Renda 220px, ''Madonna of the Lamp'', in the basilica of Santa Maria Assunta at Alcamo. Giuseppe Renda, called "l'Aroddu" (13 June 1772 - 20 October 1805), was an Italian painter. Biography Born in Alcamo into a family of farmers and third son of ...

Serpotta's statues

By the sides of the

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

there are two stucco statues, sustained by cloud-shaped

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

: one represents

, the other Charity or

Piety Piety is a virtue which may include religious devotion or spirituality. A common element in most conceptions of piety is a duty of respect. In a religious context piety may be expressed through pious activities or devotions, which may vary among ...

. They were realized in 1722 by Giacomo Serpotta on behalf of Saint Clare's nunnery and are beautiful, delicate, and full of sensual glamour. Justice, the fundamental virtue regulating human relations, is represented by a female figure with a quietly severe face; on the right hand she holds steelyard balance (to stress a right and pondered judgement) and on the left hand, on the contrary, she waves a sword, the symbol of the inflexible, but right. justice. Charity (1722), instead, represents a young bride in a quiet contemplation, holding her child in her lap, crying because he wants the mother's milk. According to some experts, she smiles for piety and, instead of being sad about the son's weeping, she is nearly glad for his pressing pangs of hunger and loiters a little, instead of satisfying him. The loving and patient expression of Charity comes up by the side of the quiet but severe attitude of Justice. In this way, Serpotta wished to represent better the feelings of love, piety and justice.

Notes

Sources

* * * Salvatore Boscarino, Marcello Fagiolo,Emanuele Fidone,Joerg Garms,Simona Gatto,Maria Giuffré,Alexandra Kramer,Angela Marino,Anna Maria Matteucci,Paolo Nifosi,Marco Rosario Nobile,Stephen Tobriner: Rosario Gagliardi:I disegni di architettura della collezione Mazza. (Una grande raccolta del Settecento siciliano), Gangemi editore *

Other projects

External links

* * * * * * * * {{cite web, title=orario sante messe, url=http://www.diocesi.trapani.it/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,225/ Roman Catholic churches in Alcamo Convents in Italy