Caltanissetta: Encyclopedia II - Caltanissetta - Sights

Caltanissetta - Sights

The city's monuments include:

• Palazzo Moncada is a large building, remained unfinished, erected in 1635 by Guglielmo Moncada. It has finely decorated corbels in the balconies of the main floor.
• The Cathedral (Santa Maria la Nova, 1539-1622). The façade was finished in the year 1840. The church has a late-Renaissance appearance that breaks the characteristic Baroque mold of most of the island of Sicily. Inside are frescoes by the Flemish painter Guglielmo Borremans, who worked here from 1722. Other works include a wooden Blessed Virgin draped in silver lamina (1760), a polychrome wooden statue by Stefano Li Volsi, and two marble statues portraying the Archangels Gabriel and Raphael. The Treasury houses a fine silver monstrance from the 15th century.
• The church of St. Agatha (1605), in late-Renaissance style. The façade is by Natale Masuccio, and is decorated by frameworks on a light coloured background. It has a Greek cross plant, with splendid Baroque decorations includings frescoes by Luigi Borremans (18th century).
• The church of San Domenico (16th century, with a convex façade from the 18th century) houses noteworthy paintings by Guglielmo Borremans and Filippo Paladino (Madonna del Rosario). The painting depicting the Madonna del Carmelo, also by Paladino, is now usedi in the Cathedral.
• The Palazzo Vescovile ("Bishop's Palace") is the seat of the Museum of Sacred Art. It has a paiting by Gian Battista Corradini of the Madonna del Rosario (1614).
• The church of the Santa Croce ("Holy Cross") is from the 17th century but has been substantially altered.
• The church of San Sebastiano (16th century), with a 17th century wooden statue of the saint.

Caltanissetta is also home to the Museo Archeologico, which holds displays from mostly prehistoric times and include finds from digs conducted in the 1950s, including vases and tools from the Bronze Age and early Sicilian ceramics.

In the neighbouhood of Caltanissetta two other notable monuments can be seen:

• The Castello di Pietrarossa ("Red Stone Castle"), built in red bricks by the Arabs over a cliff west to the city and later enlarged by the Normans. Today only ruins are visible, as the castle crumbled was destroyed in 1567 by an earthquake.
• The Abbey of Saint Spirit, built by Roger Borsa and his wife in 1092-1098, though heavily altered in the following centuries,. The original forms are still recognizable in the posterior part, with its carachteristic massive jutting apses. These are parted by flat pilasters strips and connected by a series of little arcches. The left entrance has an ogival portal from the 13th century. The lunette once contained a figure of Christ Blessing, which was eventually moved inside the church. The latter has a rectangular nave and a wooden-beamed ceiling. The walls and the apses have frescoes attributed to the 15th century. The vault of the apse shows a 17th century figure of Christ Pantocrator.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Sights", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki