Chiesa del Santissimo Crocifisso - Alcamo

The Church of Santissimo Crocifisso and the adjacent monastery are also incorrectly called the Church of San Francesco di Paola.

The brotherhood of Santissimo Crocifisso was founded in 1550 by the noble Pietro Tabone. In 1542 (at his request) he received a piece of land from the municipality of Alcamo with the aim of building a chapel in honor of the Holy Crucifix, at that time the patron saint of the city.

In 1575 there was a terrible plague : in Alcamo the population, then about 7,700 inhabitants, was halved and many people were buried in the cemetery of Sant'Ippolito, on the western edge of the city. Because the old hospitals of San Vito and Santo Spirito were insufficient to accommodate so many victims of the plague, a new hospital was founded on the same street as the chapel .

In 1608 the nearby monastery was built , which they maintained until 1866. On May 15, 1870, the municipality transferred the monastery to the administrators of the S. Vito and S. Spirito Hospital. Finally, in 1926, the church was elevated to a parish, dedicated to San Francesco di Paola.

Willem Vandenameele