The monastery and church of Santa Lucia

It is the most sumptuous architectural monument of Adrano. The foundation of the Benedictine Monastery is due to Countess Adelasia, granddaughter of Ruggero, who had the County of Adernò as her dowry.

Adelasia dedicated herself to multiple charitable works and in 1158, with a public act dated 12 May 1158, she dictated the rules and regulations for the establishment of a monastery dedicated to St. Lucia.

The monastery had to welcome twelve virgin and poor girls, who would not have to pay any contribution to take on the religious habit since the monastery had enough land with vineyards, olive groves, pastures, mills, springs and woods for its management.

The monastery was located outside the city walls, near the church of the Madonna della Consolazione, in the current neighborhood called "Maria Santissima delle Salette".

As the years passed, in the first decades of the 400s, the monastery was now small and the place unsafe, so it was decided to build the new building in the current location, on a site then called Piano delle Rose. Construction was completed

in 1596 and could accommodate a greater number of nuns. Due to various vicissitudes, around 200 years had to pass for the completion of the church (1775) and for the monastery to take on the architectural appearance that can be admired today.

The monumental complex designed by the architects Stefano Ittar and the Prince of Biscari winds along the entire course of Via Roma and is made up of several parts, two of which stand out for their importance and beauty: the church and the monastery.

The imposing construction of the monastery runs and covers the entire length of the current Via Roma (about 200 meters) and acquires greater prominence and majesty due to the large space in front in which the "Garden of Victory, the green lung of Adrano, is located.

The church has a three-order façade surmounted by two bell towers with quadrangular domes.

At the center of the first order is the entrance portal, made with a pair of paired columns placed on a pedestal, surmounted by a broken tympanum on which two angels sit. In the central part of the second order, there is a large window surmounted by a tympanum; on both sides there are two windows made of white stone. The third order consists of two bell towers connected by a balcony, divided into three fields of six pilasters.

The internal plan of the church is composed of a single elliptical nave with a shell dome that closes the large circular space and is made up of the pronaos, the hall and the apse. Among the eighteenth-century structures, the marble altars, a rococo choir and the majestic central altar with canopy roof stand out.

In the pronaos there are two marble epigraphs in which the history of the monastery is described.

Inside the church, following a circular visit route that starts from the left side of the hall, as indicated on the tactile map we have:

First altar on the left with an altarpiece depicting

the last communion of San Benedetto, from the mid-century. XVIII, is an oil on canvas.

The property belongs to the Cult Buildings Fund, it is a very representative work of the church that belonged to the Benedictine nuns of Adrano and was part of one of the oldest monasteries founded in the Catania area. It is a companion to the painting depicting the  Madonna Immaculate with San Carlo Borromeo located in the second altar on the right.

Second altar on the left dedicated to the Crucifix and contains a carved and painted wooden Crucifix, from the second half of the 18th century.

 In a central position there is the main altar, in polychrome marble, surmounted by a monumental canopy, a work from 1827, made of red velvet, applications in golden thread, golden foil, silver thread, silk thread, rhinestones and golden lace. The decorations of the red velvet side altar frames were probably created at the same time and by the same workers. The monumentality of the artefact testifies not only to the taste of an era still linked to the ephemeral apparatuses typical of Baroque culture, but also to the richness and elegance of the artisanal works commissioned by the Benedictine order, which flourished in the area until its suppression in 1866. In particular, in the case of textile works of art, some works were created by the nuns belonging to the order themselves.

Continuing we find the entrance to the Sacristy

following we find the altar dedicated to the Immaculate Conception with an altarpiece depicting, the Madonna Immacolata with San Carlo Borromeo, from the second half of 18th century, it is an oil on canvas.

The subject of the painting respects the conventional iconography widespread in the area in the 18th century: the Virgin in glory is seated in a gracefully rotated pose on pink clouds and surrounded by a crowd of little angels and cherubs; present the typical attributes of the Immaculate, the stellar and the crescent moon under her right foot. Above her is the dove of the Holy Spirit. To her right, San Carlo Borromeo prostrates himself in adoration; between the abundant red cardinal's robe and the little angel at his feet is one of his attributes, perhaps the mitre, not clearly identifiable because it is heavily covered by repaintings. The figurative culture of the painter is that which goes from Vito D'Anna to Olivio Sozzi from which our anonymous author takes up the compositional scheme.

last altar of the route, first from the right dedicated to SAINT LUCIA with an altarpiece depicting it Saint Lucia conducted the torture, oil on canvas, 1843, by Giuseppe Rapisardi (Catania 1799 – 1853)

 BAPTISM FOUNT in polychrome marble

 The frescoes in the dome of the hall depict the Assumption of the Virgin, 

The fresco in the church hall dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin certainly dates back to the mid-eighteenth century.

The apse is surmounted by a circular dome decorated in the center with a fresco depicting the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor and the Four Evangelists in the segments.

The central scene depicts the episode of the transfiguration as narrated in the three synoptic gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke), after Peter's confession. According to these texts, Jesus, after having separated himself with his disciples Peter, James and John, changed his appearance, showing himself to the three disciples with an extraordinary splendor of his person and an astonishing whiteness of his clothes.