Church and Convent of San Pietro

The church of S. Pietro at the time of its construction was located outside the walls of Piazza Armerina and depended on the Grand Prior of S. Andrea. The current building is the result of the expansion work of the Franciscan friars to whom it was entrusted in the early 1500s. They also built the convent next to the church. The inauguration of the complex took place in 1562. The church, beyond the square, facade adorned only with a Mannerist style portal, still retains its Middle-Renaissance characteristics, with its interior with a single nave, paved in sandstone room that has replaced the degraded majolica of Caltagirone and covered with a beautiful wooden coffered ceiling of the '700.
In 1624 the convent of S. Pietro, through the concession of the viceroy Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia, was declared of royal patronage with the consequent raising of the royal coat of arms in the church. Thus it was that the noble families of that period (Trigona di Cimia, Trigona di Gatta, Sanfilippo, Boccadifuoco, Polizzi, De Assoro) had chapels of great value built inside the church in order to use them as mausoleums. On the first altar on the left there is a marble arch of the Gagini school of 1612 and inside a stone fresco of the «Madonna delle Grazie» belonging to the previous church; in the center an elegant XNUMXth century holy arch of marble, decorated with elegant inlays and sculptures, leads into the presbytery, with the main altar surmounted by a beautiful XNUMXth century tabernacle in carved walnut.
The adjoining convent (now closed pending restoration), once inhabited by the Friars Minor of Santa Maria di Gesù, retains a small sixteenth-century cloister with round arches resting on squat polystyle.

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