37°36′37″N 15°09′56″E / 37.61018°N 15.16544°E
Sant'Antonio di Padova is a Gothic-style, Roman Catholic parish church located on via Vittorio Emanuele in central Acireale in the region of Sicily of Italy.
History and description
editA church at the site was built after the plague of 1466, and dedicated to St Sebastian. There was likely an oratory at the site where the church was erected. When a new onslaught of the plague afflicted the town late in the next century, a new church was commissioned.
This church was consecrated in 1652 to Saint Anthony of Padua. The 1693 Sicily earthquake nearly razed the entire structure. The present church with a single nave houses frescoes started by Pietro Paolo Vasta. In 1755, while frescoing the central nave with the Glory of St. Anthony he was afflicted with a stroke. The wall frescoes were completed by his son Alessandro.[1]
References
edit- ^ Parco Culturale Ecclesia - Terre dell'Etna e dell'Alcantara, website, entry on church, texts by Anna Coco, Maria Coco, Antonella Agata Di Gregorio.