Santa Maria della Catena is a
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
church located in the Piazza Dogana, now sandwiched between Strada Statale 113 and Via Vittorio Emanuele, located in the harbor-hugging quarter of
Castellammare in
Palermo
Palermo ( ; ; , 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 province. The ...
, region of Sicily,
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
.
History
The church was built in 1490-1520, putatively designed by
Matteo Carnilivari.
The tag ''of the chain'' (Italian: ''
catena'') derives from the presence, on one of the walls, of a chain which closed the Cala port. The chains were putatively originally a prize acquired from the defeat of a marauding Pisan fleet.
The architecture of the church mixes late Renaissance style and
Gothic-Catalan style, the latter especially visible in the three-part arcaded
loggia located at the top of the entry staircase (added in 1845). The interior is also late Gothic, and includes a canvas depicting ''Nativity with Adoration of the Shepherds'' (17th century) by an unknown master, and 16th-century bas-reliefs attributed to
Vincenzo and
Antonello Gagini, who also sculpted the capitals of the columns and the entrance portals. Traces of frescoes by
Olivio Sozzi remain in one of the chapels.
Annexed to the church is a 1602 convent house, which in 1844 was converted into a state archive.
Notes
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External links
Santa Maria della Catena
Roman Catholic churches completed in 1520
Maria della Catena
Maria della Catena
Gothic architecture in Palermo
Maria della Catena
1520 establishments in Italy
Theatine churches