Description
The Church of the Gesù, better known as Casa Professa, is one of the most important churches of Sicilian Baroque, in the Albergheria district. Outside it is stern, inside it is an explosion of colored marbles, stuccoes and frescoes: few places in Palermo have such dense decoration.
The Jesuits began it in 1564 on the model of the Gesù in Rome and kept enriching it for over a century. A traveler in 1793 wrote that the walls were "covered with marbles, inlays, statues and endless arabesques".
The wonder is the marmi mischi: inlays of polychrome marble that form flowers, twisted columns and figures, "so that without a brush it looks like the work of a brush", wrote the historian Mongitore. Up close they look painted.
The apse is perhaps the most spectacular part: on the tribune are two marble bas-reliefs, the Adoration of the Shepherds and that of the Magi, carved by Gioacchino Vitagliano on models by Giacomo Serpotta.
Also don't miss the dome above the transept, held up by four pillars with statues of the apostles, and the side chapels, with canvases by Pietro Novelli, Vito D'Anna and Antonio Grano.
On the first floor, the Oratory of the Saturday preserves the stuccoes by Procopio Serpotta from 1740, with allegorical figures of the Virtues along the hall. In 1954 a large organ with over 4,000 pipes was also built here, among the most important in the city. The complex has two cloisters.
A Basilian monastery already stood here, and in 1072 Robert Guiscard and his wife Sichelgaita founded the abbey of Santa Maria della Grotta. Under the chapel of Saint Anne the grotto is still there, where tradition says Saint Calogerus lived.
On May 9, 1943 a bomb hit the dome, which collapsed, taking with it much of the paintings of the presbytery and transept. It was rebuilt in reinforced concrete and the church reopened for worship in 1956.
The Jesuits began it in 1564 on the model of the Gesù in Rome and kept enriching it for over a century. A traveler in 1793 wrote that the walls were "covered with marbles, inlays, statues and endless arabesques".
The wonder is the marmi mischi: inlays of polychrome marble that form flowers, twisted columns and figures, "so that without a brush it looks like the work of a brush", wrote the historian Mongitore. Up close they look painted.
The apse is perhaps the most spectacular part: on the tribune are two marble bas-reliefs, the Adoration of the Shepherds and that of the Magi, carved by Gioacchino Vitagliano on models by Giacomo Serpotta.
Also don't miss the dome above the transept, held up by four pillars with statues of the apostles, and the side chapels, with canvases by Pietro Novelli, Vito D'Anna and Antonio Grano.
On the first floor, the Oratory of the Saturday preserves the stuccoes by Procopio Serpotta from 1740, with allegorical figures of the Virtues along the hall. In 1954 a large organ with over 4,000 pipes was also built here, among the most important in the city. The complex has two cloisters.
A Basilian monastery already stood here, and in 1072 Robert Guiscard and his wife Sichelgaita founded the abbey of Santa Maria della Grotta. Under the chapel of Saint Anne the grotto is still there, where tradition says Saint Calogerus lived.
On May 9, 1943 a bomb hit the dome, which collapsed, taking with it much of the paintings of the presbytery and transept. It was rebuilt in reinforced concrete and the church reopened for worship in 1956.