Acireale Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Acireale, ''Cattedrale Maria Santissima Annunziata'') 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 let ...

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations ...

dedicated to the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the city of

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. ...

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

, province 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 b ...

, Italy. It was declared the seat of the Bishop of Acireale in 1870. Acireale piazza duomo1

The present cathedral building, which is located in the ''Piazza Duomo'', was constructed as a simple parish church between 1597 and 1618 that was greatly enlarged a few years later when it received the

relics In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

Saint Venera Saint Venera (''Veneranda, Veneria, Venerina, Parasceve'') is venerated as a Christian martyr of the 2nd century. Little is known of this saint. The date of her death is traditionally given as July 26, 143 AD. In the ''Catalogo Sanctorum'', com ...

, one of the two patron saints of the city,. The structure survived the earthquake of 1693, and the present cathedral is a 17th-century building with significant additions from each succeeding century. Of particular note are the

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 ...

portal representing the

Annunciation The Annunciation (from Latin '), also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical tale of the announcement by the ang ...

by Placido Blandamonte of

Messina Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in t ...

, dating from 1668, combined with a

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

west front by Giovan Battista Filippo Basile, completed after his death in 1891 to his plans, of c.1900. The two

campanile A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tow ...

s, in

Mannerist Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Ita ...

style with octagonal bases, although identical in appearance, are centuries apart in construction: the one to the south is from 1655, as is the

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, f ...

, while the one to the north, as well as the

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window' ...

, are from 1890. The interior is 17th century Baroque. The interior decoration includes painting 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 ...

, Francesco Mancini Ardizzone, Antonio Filocamo,

Giuseppe Sciuti Giuseppe Sciuti (Zafferana Etnea, Sicily, 26 February 1834 - Rome, 13 March 1911) was an Italian painter. Biography His father, a pharmacist, insisted his son follow his trade. But he relented and allowed Giuseppe to study locally at age 15, and ...

, Francesco Patanè, and Giacinto Platania. Private Acireale tourism site
.

Notes

External links

Diocese of Acireale: official website
Roman Catholic cathedrals in Italy Cathedrals in Sicily Roman Catholic churches in Acireale 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Roman Catholic churches completed in 1889 {{Italy-RC-cathedral-stub