Church of Our Lady of the Rosary
The works for its construction began in 1538 after demolishing the fifteenth century Church of S. Leonardo. Church and convent underwent important changes in the late eighteenth century. In the simple facade stands the portal, which rests on two semi-columns with Corinthian capitals. At the top there was a large oculus then replaced, in 1705, by an elegant rectangular window. The bell tower is arranged on the back. The interior has a three-nave Renaissance system with five round arches resting on columns, with quadrangular apse and without transept. The ceiling of each nave is divided into five eighteenth-century cruises.
Eight altars distributed in the two side aisles. On the right, the first is dedicated to S. Vincenzo Ferreri (with polychrome statue attributed to Filippo Quattrocchi); the second to the Madonna and Santi Domenicani (with eighteenth-century canvas attributed to Filippo Jannelli); the third dedicated to the Madonna with Saints Catherine and Thomas (with 18th century canvas); the last altar was dedicated to St. Dominic with a particularly valuable gilded wooden parapet; at the last column is arranged the wooden pulpit with canopy supported by columns of neoclassical taste. On the back wall there is a small polychrome wooden stick decorated on which is placed the effigy of the Child Jesus; in the upper part instead a painting by St.Antonio from Padua.
To the left: the noble tomb in marble and stucco of the family of Nicola Cumbo precedes the first altar of the Crucifix with an ancient polychrome simulacrum and poor marbles; follows the wooden altar of the late seventeenth century that depicts the Glory of St. Dominic; the third altar has a canvas depicting S. Girolamo (1694); the fourth presents a canvas of the Madonna del Rosario, S. Domenico, S. Caterina, S. Vincenzo Ferreri and two faithful. The fifteen oval squares in bronze reproduce the Mysteries of the Rosary.
On the front of the nave is the prestigious Capuchin Custody here transferred from the ancient Church of the Cappuccini. The high altar, in polychrome marble and white Carrara bas-reliefs, is of neoclassical style and was erected in 1809 to replace a wooden altar from 1596. Finally, a large painting on the wall represents Jesus healing a paralytic (1789), while in the apse is placed the painting of Our Lady of Itria or Odigitria. The ceiling of the central nave is characterized by frescoes of Messinese Domenico Giordano, dated to 1789: Gloria di S. Domenico, S. Domenico that burns the books of the heretics, S. Domenico with Saints Pietro and Paolo.
