The Church of Santa Maria di Loreto in Petralia Soprana

The Church of Santa Maria di Loreto in Petralia Soprana

The beautiful Church of Santa Maria di Loreto in Petralia Soprana is located in the district known as Û castru and has a very particular history as the current structure was built on a much older pre-existing cult building.
The peculiarity of its architecture and the presence of some components from different eras make it truly a unique building. For those who wish to visit it, all its particularities are indicated in the following description.

The history of the Church of Santa Maria di Loreto in Petralia Soprana

The history of the Church of Santa Maria di Loreto in Petralia Soprana is very particular because some documents of Arab era dating back to 985 speak of a castle with a small church which was located in the area currently occupied by the cult building. Dates back to 1066, however, a document made by Godfrey Malaterra, official documentary maker of Ruggero's court, which told of the presence of the Petralia Soprana castle which had an annexed palatine chapel which a few centuries later was transformed into the convent dedicated to Sant'Elia, from which the name of the locality Petralia probably also derives.

In this form, the church resisted for a long time, being partially destroyed after the earthquake of the seventeenth century which led to its enlargement during the reconstruction phase.
Between 1730 and 1750 the church, which in the meantime had changed its name and was dedicated to the Virgin of Loreto, underwent a further arrangement that led it to take on its current form, while the old buildings that were part of the convent were transformed into lodgings for the inhabitants of the area who lent their work and for the nuns who animated the church. Also in this same period a bell tower was added on the right side and the stucco decoration which makes the interior even more precious.

The architecture and any works of art present in the Parish of Santa Maria di Loreto

The peculiarity of the style of the Church of Santa Maria di Loreto in Petralia Soprana is that it was entirely built following the influences of the Madonie Baroque, typical of this area of ​​Sicily. Its main facade is characterized by a certain symmetry of the parts, with a main door surrounded by two turrets with a bell tower.

The spiers, which give it a particular appearance, are filiform and covered with Sicilian majolica, the largest door surmounted by a series of arches and inlaid with stories of the saints. On top of the tympanum, then, a gilded iron cross stands out to be recognizable from every area of ​​the village. The church is nestled between two other buildings that once served as a convent and are now private homes.
Inside, the church has a series of niches that hold sacred paintings and statues of Saints and Madonnas from different eras while the marble altar made up of slabs in which four parables of Christianity are carved certainly catches the attention.

What you can do around the Parish

A visit to the Church of Santa Maria di Loreto in Petralia Soprana can be the excuse for a more in-depth visit to what was decreed the most beautiful village in Italy in 2018. There are many points of interest that can be of interest to those who love culture and history and want to immerse themselves in a distant era. First of all, don't miss the Duomo, which is actually called Church of the Madonna Assunta and is known as the mother church: the main structure dates back to the seventeenth century but an inscription on one of the facades reminds us that the original nucleus of the structure was already present in the sixteenth century.

Also very beautiful is the church of San Francesco, which dates back to 1484 and which is located adjacent to a Franciscan convent. In the church of pawnshop which is located nearby and which is instead of sixteenth-century workmanship, you can admire a beautiful and enormous crib which is set right in Petralia. For those who want to discover unusual glimpses, the advice is to go through the stages of Urban Geological Trail which is indicated by some brass studs driven into the ground and which includes particular points such as fossils of the Miocene, the karst caves and the springs that flow right in the city centre.
Along the same route you can discover an ancient neviera and the historical-ethnographic museumknown as 'u Parmintieddu.

How to get to Petralia Sottana

Those wishing to visit the Parish of Santa Maria di Loreto in Petralia Sottana can easily reach the place with their own car.
The town, which is located in the province of Palermo, is connected to the capital via the A 20 which connects Palermo to Messina, with the Buonfornello exit for those coming from Palermo, while those coming from Messina must instead exit at Pollina/Castelbuono.
Finally, from Catania, the reference motorway is the A 19 up to the Irosa exit.
As far as the train is concerned, however, Petralia Sottana does not have its own railway station but relies on those of the nearby towns which are those of Termini Imerese or Cefalù from which it is then possible to continue with a bus service organized by the ATS company, departing from Palermo.

© Davide Mauro, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons; trolvag, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons