Chiesa dei Santi Cosma e Damiano and Monastero di Santa Chiara - Alcamo

The Church of Saints Cosma and Damian is known as S. Chiara because it is also where the Monastery of the Poor Clares is located.

The S. Chiara Monastery was founded on 18-07-1545 by three sisters from Alcamo of noble families: Antonina, Angela and Alberta Mompilleri, who renovated "a large estate with family-owned houses" and started a religious life there, the SS -church. The Monastery of Santa Chiara, adjacent to the church, was added in the years 1545-1547.

The church got its current appearance through the reconstruction of 1721-1725.

Inside the church: two large canvases by the Flemish painter Guglielmo Borremans depict the Immaculate Conception and the Madonna presenting the Child to Saint Clare; there are also two paintings by Andrea Carrera from Trapani, 'Our Lady of the Rosary' from 1658 and 'Our Lady of the Angels' from 1669, and a wooden crucifix from the 17th century of great expressive intensity.

On the sides of the main altar are two beautiful and valuable allegorical statues by Van Giacomo Serpotta: Justice and Charity (1722). The altarpiece depicting the Immaculate Virgin, from 1722, is the work of Gugliemo Borremans, also the author of a Madonna with Child Jesus and Saints that stands on a side altar in the same church.

Inside the monastery we find the Madonna di Passavia by Giuseppe Renda, wooden and alabaster statues from the 18th century and works in ceramic and enamel plastic.

Willem Vandenameele