Oratorio di San Mercurio - Palermo

The monastery was built in 1557 by the Company of Santa Maria della Consolazione under the title of the Desert and of San Mercurio.

In this chapel they venerated an old statue of the Blessed Virgin that they had found in a deserted place outside the city walls. Their job was to help the sick in the Ospedale Grande .

The room, preceded by an elegant staircase dating from 1719 and by an anti-oratory with a majolica floor and a ceiling with frescoes depicting "Jesus Christ visits San Mercurio in prison" , has harmonious stucco decorations around the windows and in the large chapel, made by Giacomo Serpotta in 1678 and the classical arrangement of wooden benches along the sides.

On the entrance wall is the choir with a lacquered and gilded wooden organ. The vault of the presbytery was decorated with a glory of plastered cherubs and painted with the "Glory of San Mercurio" , while on the main altar there is an eighteenth century canvas depicting " The Appearance of the Virgin and Child to San Mercurio" .

The majolica floor of the main hall was made between 1714 and 1715 by Sebastiano Gurrello and Maurizio Vagolotta, according to a design by the priest architect Giulio Di Pasquale.

Willem Vandenameele