Church of San Biagio in San Biagio di Platani

La Church of St. Blaise in San Biagio Platani it was built with the first residential nucleus in the mid-seventeenth century. The building is the meeting place of the community and from the end of the eighteenth century with the economic and social development of the town various expansion and restructuring works were carried out, testimony to the devotion of the inhabitants of the districts. In 2002 there are the last interventions needed to restructure the facade and make the interior richer.

The story of San Biagio Platani and its Mother Church

The Parish Church of San Biagio is located in San Biagio Platani on a hill crossed by the Platani and Turvoli rivers. The church was built at the same time as the town in 1635 on commission from Don Giovanni Battista Gerardi which gets the populous licence by King Philip IV of Spain. This special concession allowed the feudal lords of the kingdom of Sicily to build a village and populate a fiefdom .

Don Gerardi therefore began to build a first inhabited center which included the lands of San Biagio, Gialdonieri and Mandralia, districts with an agricultural vocation in the Agrigento hinterland. The first houses are built around the Mother Church which becomes the place of religious and civil aggregation of the country where the population gathers and finds itself in community.

In fact, the life of the inhabitants took place in the fields where the single families took care of the fund for the feudal lord and on holidays, in the church, bonds of solidarity were formed and reaffirmed. In the mid-eighteenth century the village experienced a great agricultural development and the feudal lords Ioppolo and Gianguercio also added to the village the fund of They kid , the church is therefore expanded to accommodate a greater number of faithful. In 1863, to distinguish it from other towns, the name Platani was added next to San Biagio.

The architectural features of the Church of San Biagio

La Mother Church it was built in 1635 in red bricks and its original plan included a main altar and only two side altars. In 1678 the Bishop of Agrigento Don Francesco Rihini went on a pastoral visit to the town and in 1760 when the town experienced a period of great development, it was decided to expand the church to adapt it to the new needs of the community.

The works of renovation they begin in 1764 and end in 1779 and foresee the construction of a transept, a presbytery with a circular apse, two chapels with an apse and a dome supported by four pillars. The Latin cross plan of the building is enriched with a variety of works by Father Fedele from S. Biagio , eighteenth-century painter whose most important canvases are the Miracle of St. Biagio, the Martyrdom of St. Fedele of Sigmaringa, the Annunciation, Samson and Dalila and the Delivery of the keys from Jesus to Peter.

From the 1950th century the church experienced a serious decline and in 2002 the building, now in very bad condition, was renovated and the XNUMXth century façade was replaced with a more essential one made up of exposed sandstone ashlars and framed by pilasters in squared stone slabs. In XNUMX other works were necessary to restore the facade and one was also built Bell tower with a steel frame structure that is placed to the east of the building. A bas-relief depicting the Last Supper was also added inside the building.

What to see in San Biagio Platani

San Biagio Platani is a small center which houses the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Carmel, built at the behest of the Ioppolo family during the XNUMXth century. The building, symbol of the devotion of the new feudal lords, has essential lines and an architectural structure with a semicircular plan with Corinthian columns and neoclassical stuccos.

The facade is made of local stone and in the seventies of the twentieth century the bell tower was built with a reinforced concrete structure. The country is also home to the Easter Arches Museum, a unique exhibition of its kind as it preserves the artistic structures that delimit the sacred space where, according to Christian tradition, the meeting of the Risen Christ with the Madonna takes place at Easter.

The arches are decorated with bread, flowers, almonds, ears, dates, olive branches, reeds and rosemary, significant elements for the area and symbols of prosperity that intertwined, give life to cathedrals and colonnades.

How to reach the Parish of San Biagio

La Mother Church it is located at number 1 of Corso Umberto I in San Biagio Platani in province of Agrigento. The church can be reached from Agrigento in about 50 minutes by car with the SS118 which crosses the districts of Buagimi and Raffadali. About 20 kilometers from the town, take the SP19 in the direction of Via Filippo Corridoni and continue towards Corso Umberto I.