Mother Church of St. John the Baptist
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🎧 STAGE 3 – MOTHER CHURCH OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST
The Mother Church of Bisacquino is an authentic treasure chest of art, faith and history, dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The present Baroque structure, built beginning in 1720, is the third construction phase of a medieval parish church that existed since the town’s origin, but of which no vestige remains.
Of the Renaissance phase, the 16th-century Santa Maria degli Angeli demolished in 1703, the apsidal area incorporated into the oratory of the Blessed Sacrament is preserved, and the mannerist bell tower, with a square base and high plinth and ribbed dome, visible at the right corner of the 18th-century elevation.
Probably designed by the Dominican architect Friar Damiano Rizzo, the building faced numerous structural difficulties, examined by order of the Archbishop of Monreale Francesco Testa by a Professor of Architecture and by ‘Master Chiefs and also due to moisture and water handed down underground from the upper part of the town and the mountain behind.
The facade, made of squared tufa ashlars, has two orders of construction, joined by Baroque volutes. Work on the elevation was entrusted to magister Matteo Savoca of Sciacca from 1756 to 1760, who also sculpted the stone statues of St. John the Baptist and St. Rosalie, placed at the tops and watching over the village.
The neoclassical-style dome was built thanks to the interest of Venerable Monsignor Giovanni Bacile, whose remains are enshrined in a marble sarcophagus in the Chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes inside the church, next to the altar.
Upon entering, the first chapel on the left houses a wooden statue of the church’s titular saint, St. John the Baptist, carved by Palermo-born Pietro Marino in 1742.
The church has three naves, covered by lunetted barrel vaults. Eighteenth-century gilded stucco decorates the walls and achieves considerable complexity in the transept.
On one side is the Eternal Father surrounded by the Four Evangelists, on the other the Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity, and the Good Works.
These depictions can be traced back to the workshop of brothers Vincenzo and Gabriele Messina, with whom the bisacquinese plasterer Giuseppe Portaleri collaborated.
Among the guarded masterpieces is the monumental Vara of the Most Holy Crucifix, carved by bisacquinese “maestro faligname ed Ingegniero” Giuseppe Bellacera in 1792: a mighty canopy finely carved and profuse with golds.
The Vara holds a wooden Christ Crucified, probably from the first half of the 17th century, attributed to the school of Friar Humile of Petralia. The Christ Crucified, almost life-size, is realistically depicted a moment before taking his last breath. The cross is embellished with silver and tortoiseshell foils.
The highlight of religious life is the spectacular procession on May 3, when the Vara, weighing some many quintals, is carried on the shoulders of the faithful among an excited crowd, preceded by some 30 statues of saints.
Worth contemplating is the precious oval-shaped painting on the altar depicting the Sacred Heart of Jesus, attributed to the famous Saccano painter Mariano Rossi.
In the deep chancel towers the high altar in polychrome marble, surmounted by the magnificent painting of Our Lady of Paradise, made by Gioacchino Martorana in 1777. On either side is an elegant wooden choir with finely carved lecterns, probably the work of Bisacchino’s “Master Shipwrights.”
The19th-century organ, in the neoclassical style, was built Antonino Ragonese, by Palermo-based master organ builder Antonino Ragonese in 1861.
The Mother Church is the beating heart of Bisacquino: a place where sacred art and popular tradition tell the most authentic soul of the village. An essential stop for those who wish to experience the most intimate and spiritual Sicily.
