Church of San Gaetano

Church of S. Maria della Catena, also known as Church of S. Gaetano. Piaggia believes the temple was built in Aragonese times and was restored in 1621. In 1717, the Jesuits settled in the church after founding a company of laymen in a nearby house. Major works after 1718 renewed its appearance. The building, reduced to its essential structures with traces of decoration, has a single nave with a quadrangular apse covered by an elegant dome with a lantern. The four side altars were housed in niches alternating with pilasters, with rich rococo stucco decoration of which few remains. The façade is in a single order, with a Rococo door surmounted by a bare window. The side door, with pilasters and Corinthian capitals, is of fine Renaissance workmanship. The building as a whole probably dates back to the late Renaissance and the date of 1621 reported by Piaggia could be accepted. On the high altar was the painting of Our Lady of the Chain, now kept in the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows at the Cape. The polychrome statue of St Gaetano is in the Church of St Catherine of Alexandria.