Church S. Mary Scala Coeli
XVII century
The church was built in XVII century by the Cigala family as a noble chapel, near the baronial palace.
It has a single-nave architecture without any apse, with small lateral rooms used as sacristy and bell tower.
The cover of the church consists of a barrel vault having wide and luminous windows on its sides; the windows are surrounded, in the inner side, by arches with ogival frames.
The quite simple façade is embellished with a Baroque portal, having the Cigala family’s marble coat of arms in the middle, with a heart-shaped shield and the eagle with its wings outstretched, surmounted by a feathered helmet; everything is surrounded by rolled scrolls and, among the curls, we find the cicadas, which are the heraldic symbol of the family.
The inside is characterised by a decorative system of stucco and wall paintings. The latter were made by the local painter Giuseppe Grembiale in 1940.
In the church there were some wooden statues of great artistic value, among which the statue of St. Philomena, of the Blessed Angelo of Acri and a valuable Baroque wooden crucifix.
On a lateral wall altar, we find a big panel painting featuring a scene of the Nativity of Mary.
The original furnishings of the church included an oil painting on canvas, embedded in a gilded bronze frame, featuring a scene of Virgin Mary as a child.
