Oratorio dei Bianchi - Chiesa di Santa Maria della Vittoria alla Kalsa - Palermo

The Oratory of the Noble, Primary and Royal Company of the Most Holy Cross, more simply known as the Oratorio dei Bianchi, was founded in 1542. It gets its nickname from the color of its members' tunics.

The members comforted and provided moral support to those sentenced to death. They invite them to confession and repentance.

The building is located in the 'Piazza dei Bianchi', near the church of Santa Maria dello Spasimo. It stands on the remains of the pre-existing church of Santa Maria della Vittoria which was rebuilt at the end of the 15th century by the architect Matteo Carnilivari on the site where one of the gates of the ancient Arab citadel Al Halisah, today's Kalsa, was standing.

Over the years, the Compagnia dei Bianchi was dissolved and the oratorio passed into the hands of the Archbishop's curia, resulting in a period of profound degradation and abandonment of the building, not to mention the structural damage caused by earthquakes and bombings during World War II.

In 1987, the Supervisor of Cultural and Ecological Heritage of Palermo purchased the property and carried out the restoration to make it public again. The ground floor today exhibits statues belonging to both the original oratorio (now defunct) and other oratorios and churches in Palermo.

Inside the oratory it is also possible to admire the wooden Bab el Fotik door through which Robert Guiscard entered in 1071 during the conquest of Palermo. To celebrate the reconquest of the city, Grand Count Roger preserved the gate and named it Porta della Vittoria, with an image of the "Madonna della Vittoria" painted over it.

The large hall has frescoes by Gioacchino Mercurio, among others, depicting the beheading of John the Baptist.

Willem Vandenameele