Description
The Church of Santa Teresa alla Kalsa is a Baroque church on Piazza Kalsa, in Palermo. Its full name is the Church of Saints Anne and Teresa of Ávila, and the facade is a small spectacle of columns and niches.
The facade, on two levels, is a play of columns that jut out more and more toward the center, as if coming to meet the square. Above the portal, two boys hold a roundel with the Holy Family, the work of Cristoforo Milanti.
Higher up, in the central niche, stand the two patron saints, Saint Anne and Saint Teresa of Ávila. The architect was the Palermo-born Giacomo Amato, who also designed the polychrome marble floor.
The interior has a single nave, covered in stuccoes by the Serpotta family. On either side of the high altar, two stucco statues by Giacomo Serpotta, or perhaps Procopio, represent the patron saints: Saint Teresa holds a pen and a book.
The Chapel of the Crucifix has a polychrome wooden Christ with a cross faced in jasper, and behind it a Crucifixion with mourners in Carrara marble, carved by Ignazio Marabitti between 1781 and 1783.
The high altar is lined with agates, amethysts and lapis lazuli, with the tabernacle adorned with amethysts. It comes from the church of the Madonna delle Raccomandate, demolished in 1924.
The most famous painting is the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (the Transverberation of the heart) by Guglielmo Borremans, from 1722, considered one of his masterpieces.
The birth of this church was not a peaceful one: squabbles, spite and crossed vetoes with other monasteries marked the founding, in 1628, of the monastery of the Discalced Carmelite nuns. The Duke of Montalto and the Princess of Paceco promoted it, and Pope Urban VIII gave his approval.
Work on the present church began in 1686 and it was blessed in 1706, from a design by Giacomo Amato. The nuns left the monastery in 1866, after the suppression laws, and since 1947 the church has belonged to the Discalced Carmelite friars.
The facade, on two levels, is a play of columns that jut out more and more toward the center, as if coming to meet the square. Above the portal, two boys hold a roundel with the Holy Family, the work of Cristoforo Milanti.
Higher up, in the central niche, stand the two patron saints, Saint Anne and Saint Teresa of Ávila. The architect was the Palermo-born Giacomo Amato, who also designed the polychrome marble floor.
The interior has a single nave, covered in stuccoes by the Serpotta family. On either side of the high altar, two stucco statues by Giacomo Serpotta, or perhaps Procopio, represent the patron saints: Saint Teresa holds a pen and a book.
The Chapel of the Crucifix has a polychrome wooden Christ with a cross faced in jasper, and behind it a Crucifixion with mourners in Carrara marble, carved by Ignazio Marabitti between 1781 and 1783.
The high altar is lined with agates, amethysts and lapis lazuli, with the tabernacle adorned with amethysts. It comes from the church of the Madonna delle Raccomandate, demolished in 1924.
The most famous painting is the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (the Transverberation of the heart) by Guglielmo Borremans, from 1722, considered one of his masterpieces.
The birth of this church was not a peaceful one: squabbles, spite and crossed vetoes with other monasteries marked the founding, in 1628, of the monastery of the Discalced Carmelite nuns. The Duke of Montalto and the Princess of Paceco promoted it, and Pope Urban VIII gave his approval.
Work on the present church began in 1686 and it was blessed in 1706, from a design by Giacomo Amato. The nuns left the monastery in 1866, after the suppression laws, and since 1947 the church has belonged to the Discalced Carmelite friars.