Description
The Church of Santa Maria della Catena is a Catalan Gothic church overlooking La Cala, Palermo's old harbor, at the start of the Cassaro. You'll recognize it by the three-arched portico at the top of a flight of steps: a masterpiece of late 15th-century Sicilian Gothic, by Matteo Carnilivari.
Under the portico are three marble portals by the Gagini family: in the central one the Madonna holds the Child, who is playing with a chain. Inside, three naves on squat columns, frescoes by Olivio Sozzi and, in a chapel, the 14th-century fresco of the Virgin of Graces.
The name comes from the chain that closed the medieval harbor, fastened right here. Legend adds a miracle: in 1392 three men condemned to death, chained in the little church because of a storm, are said to have felt their chains break while they prayed to the Virgin.
The 14th-century fresco was covered over, perhaps after the Council of Trent because it showed the Virgin with a bare breast, and came back to light in the 1990 restoration.
Under the portico are three marble portals by the Gagini family: in the central one the Madonna holds the Child, who is playing with a chain. Inside, three naves on squat columns, frescoes by Olivio Sozzi and, in a chapel, the 14th-century fresco of the Virgin of Graces.
The name comes from the chain that closed the medieval harbor, fastened right here. Legend adds a miracle: in 1392 three men condemned to death, chained in the little church because of a storm, are said to have felt their chains break while they prayed to the Virgin.
The 14th-century fresco was covered over, perhaps after the Council of Trent because it showed the Virgin with a bare breast, and came back to light in the 1990 restoration.