Santissima Trinità (Holiest Trinity) is a late-

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 ...

architecture, Roman Catholic church and former monastery (Badia) located on Via Vittorio Emanuele, corner of Via Santissima Trinità in the city

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, southern Italy. The monastery is now a science high school.

History and Description

The Benedictine nuns once associated with this monastery, founded in 1351 by a noblewoman Cesaria de Augusta, had initially owned a church on vico San Martino, this was united to the monastery of Portosalvo in 1554, and then to the college of the orphans two years later. Only after the

1693 Sicily earthquake The 1693 Sicily earthquake struck parts of southern Italy near Sicily, Calabria, and Malta on January 11 at around 21:00 local time. This earthquake was preceded by a damaging foreshock on January 9. The main quake had an estimated magnitude of 7. ...

, did the nuns move here and construction of the present church began soon after, in the 18th century. The façade has a central concave protrusion, a Borromini-esque design attributed to Francesco Battaglia. The portal is preceded by a few stairs made of black lava stone. The broken stone tympanum over the entrance supports two recumbent female sculptures, gazing up to an unusual cartouche of an eye surrounded by rays, an allegory of the eye of God. Each story is flanked by a pilaster and column, both with corinthian capitals. In the center is a

Serlian window A Venetian window (also known as a Serlian window) is a large tripartite window which is a key element in Palladian architecture. Although Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1554) did not invent it, the window features largely in the work of the Italian ar ...

. On the flanks the facade rises to towers. The interior nave has an elliptical shape, while the apse has a rectangular layout. The interior has a number of notable altarpieces. The first altar on the right houses a ''Baptism of Jesus'' by Olivio Sozzi (a copy of the painting by

Vito D'Anna Vito D'Anna (14 October 1718 – 13 October 1769) was an Italian painter, considered the most prominent painter of Palermitan rococo and one of the most important artists of Sicily. Biography He was the father of Alessandro D'Anna, the brother ...

for the church of Origlione in

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

). The third altar houses a ''Madonna appearing to St. John the Baptist on Patmos'' attributed to Sebastiano Conca. The firs altar on the left is a ''Crucifixion'', while the third altar is ''St Benedict and the vision of the Trinity'' by Sozzi.Entry in Catania Reconstructed
by Giuseppe Maimone Publisher, in the comune website.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trinità Catania Roman Catholic churches in Catania Baroque architecture in Catania