Chiesa di San Francesco d'Assisi

Beautiful

Or the Immaculate Conception

Pretty

Historic church to visit

Very nice

A church dedicated to St. Francis, worth seeing away from Via Atenea.

Rebuilt in the eighteenth century, it has an exterior in Baroque style, while the interior, in neoclassical style, is the result of nineteenth-century renovations or carried out following the damage suffered during the Second World War. It was founded in the 13th century by the Chiaramonte family and soon became the burial place of the nobles from Agrigento. Inside is also practiced the cult of San Giovanni who does not have a dedicated church in Agrigento. On June 24 the devotees bring the bread to the church and have it blessed by the parish priest, then distribute it to the poor or to those present. I remember my mother who every year offered a bread, in the shape of a leg of natural size, in thanks to the Saint who had protected my brother who, seriously injured following an accident, had seriously risked losing a leg. In Agrigento, the tradition of anatomically shaped votive loaves has pre-Christian origins and is particularly perpetuated in honor not only of San Giovanni, but above all of San Calogero, the saint most loved by the locals and whose festival, not to be missed, dates back to first to the second Sunday of July, every year. Only in 2020 it did not have due to the pandemic caused by Covid 19. Inside the church with a single nave, the monumental tomb of Giovan Battista Peruzzo Archbishop, born in Molara in Piedmont and Bishop of Agrigento from 1932 to 1963, does not go unnoticed. He participated in the work of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. He opposed the alliance between the socialists and Christian democracy and for him the opening to the left was a betrayal of Catholics. In 1945 he suffered an attack in the hermitage sanctuary of Santa Rosalia in Santo Stefano di Quisquina in the province of Agrigento and mentioned by Andrea Camilleri in the book '' The sheep and the shepherd ''. He died in 1963.