Chiesa di Sant'Antonio Abate Magno - Palermo

The church already existed in 1220 when the parish title of Saint Cataldo was transferred to it.

The church was part of the district known as Porta di mare or Patielli , inhabited by clog makers . Over the centuries, the Patitelli district changed significantly in appearance, until it was no longer recognizable. The current church was only built in the 16th century and after the earthquake of 1823, which seriously damaged the church, the building took on a neo-Gothic shape.

The vertical support of the architectural organism is the dome , completed in 1536 and supported by ogival arches on slender columns.

The interior space, with a "Greek" plan on a square base, was expanded by the construction of a tribune, where the wooden choir was installed in 1709 and the high altar in 1789. On the side walls hang two canvases by Gaspare Serenario, "Christ and the Adulteress" and "Christ and the Centurion", painted in 1757. In the center is 'St. Charles Borromeo' painted by Giuseppe Salerno in the first decades of the 17th century.

A transenna in mixed marble closes the stand. In the left aisle is the baptismal font, sculpted in 1755 by Francesco Pennino after a design by Ignazio Marabitti. In the left apse are some marble reliefs, sculpted by Antonello Gagini around the middle of the 16th century. In the right apse hangs a 17th-century painting, attributed to Giuseppe Salerno, of 'Saint Anthony Abbot'.

The church contains a number of wooden statues, including a 19th-century Madonna by Giuseppe Bagnasco, and valuable wooden crucifixes. At the foot of the stairs, in a reliquary, is the wooden bust of the 'Ecce Homo' which was painted in the early 17th century by Friar Umile of Petralia and is the subject of popular veneration.

Willem Vandenameele