Chiesa della S.S. Annunziata

The church of the SS. Annunziata is annexed to an ancient convent that already existed at the time of the pilgrimage of St. Anthony of Padua in 1225 when, traveling to Noto, the Saint stopped for a few days at Vizzini, where he celebrated Holy Mass. After the earthquake of 1693, the convent and the cloister and the church of the Annunziata were so ruined, the Franciscans rebuilt the convent partly on its ruins and, taking advantage of the abandonment of the church of S. Caterina, they appropriated it, rebuilding it and enlarging it , and turned it into the convent church, dedicating it to the ancient church of the Annunciation. In it they carried the entire niche dedicated to St. Anthony, carved in the Baroque style, which still makes a fine show inside the building. The church, with a single nave, decorated with very valuable frescoes, depicting characters from the Old and New Testament, has an eighteenth-century façade, today caged by scaffolding for restoration and consolidation. Inside it houses oil paintings, such as that of the Annunciation of Mary, of St. Francis of Assisi, of excellent workmanship of the '700. On the main altar, in marble with a tabernacle of gilded silver, you can admire the statues of St. Lucy and other saints, always of the time but of unknown authors, depicting the Immaculate and St. Anthony of Padua. In the cloister the well and the bases of the columns of the ancient convent are still visible as well as a cave called of S. Antonio, in which one can see the remains of an ancient polychrome ceramic pavement. The high altar is from 1684 and is dedicated to Sant’Antonio Abate.