Sant'Antonio di Padova, Acireale
37°36′37″N 15°09′56″E / 37.61018°N 15.16544°E
Sant'Antonio di Padova is a
Roman Catholic parish church located on via Vittorio Emanuele in central Acireale in the region of Sicily of Italy
.
History and description
A 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
- ^ Parco Culturale Ecclesia - Terre dell'Etna e dell'Alcantara, website, entry on church, texts by Anna Coco, Maria Coco, Antonella Agata Di Gregorio.