Portale di San Giorgio - Sambuca di Sicilia

This 16th century stone portal was returned to its original location, in the square originally dedicated to San Giorgio and now named after the writer Emanuele Navarro della Miraglia.

In ancient times this was the entrance to the Church of San Giorgio, the oldest in the city, built on an ancient Arab mosque , at the entrance to the Saracen Quarter. The church had two tall bell towers: one was originally the tower of Zabut Castle and then incorporated into the place of Christian worship; the other, built to house the town clock, gave its name to "lu chianu di San Giorgio". The sacred building represented the transition between the Arab period and that of the first evangelization.

In 1958, when the church found itself in precarious circumstances , the order came to demolish that jewel . But history is also full of brave men who revolted against that bad choice and tried to save the numerous works preserved in it : silver, wooden statues, silver furniture. Even the painter Gianbecchina tore from the wall a Byzantine fresco depicting the Madonna delle Grazie, now kept in the Museum of Sacred Art located in the Church of Purgatory . They also preserved the mechanism of the clock from 1500 and the stone portal.

This portal has now been returned to its original position. It forms a picturesque backdrop , ideally reminiscent of the entrance to the church. The portal is supported by a deeply oxidized "leaf", in clear chromatic contrast, in memory of the crack caused by the destruction of one of the most important monuments of the village.

Willem Vandenameele