Chiesa di San Giuseppe Cafasso (ex S.Giorgio in Kemonia) - Palermo

Several buildings of a religious nature were successively built on this site, starting with a first church whose origins date back to the 4th century.

Then there was a Norman church belonging to the Cistercian Fathers; then it passed to the Olivetan fathers of the Monastery of S. Maria di Monte Oliveto allo Spasimo, who rebuilt the church from 1765 onwards.

The building presents beautiful forms of mature Baroque tending towards classicism . The facade consists of two orders, bounded horizontally by cornices and interrupted by robust pilasters; the portal is simple with a high broken arched tympanum.

The interior has a single nave with three semi-circular chapels on each side . Two larger curvilinear chapels form a kind of transept; the apse has a deep semicircular basin.

The walls are covered with a delicate rococo style stucco decoration. Furthermore, you can admire interesting frescoes and furniture from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries , such as the fresco on the vault of the apse with the "Madonna giving the garment to Saint Benedict", painted by Giuseppe Tresca, as well as the two oil paintings tondi placed laterally , and the crucifix with eighteenth-century reliquary by Giuseppe Marabitti placed in the third chapel on the right.

It is possible to visit the bell tower attached to the church, with its slender shape and modest height, which reaches about 20 meters above the ground, and from where you can enjoy the view of a fantastic panorama.

Willem Vandenameele