St. Nicola Bishop’s Church (XVI -XVII cent.)

The tradition tells that in the past a church devoted to St. Nicola existed in Gasperina, situated in the street ruga ‘e Pateḍa, exactly in the alley that still today bears the name of the Saint. We do not known if it were the same place of cult as documented in the ‘500 with the same title.
The today’s Matrix Church, consecrated on 1732, is devoted to Saint Nicola Bishop, and it is the seat of the homonym parish. The most ancient dates that we can find on the building go up to ‘600, but a pre-existence is not excluded. Between XVII-XX centuries it was the seat of various religious brotherhoods:  Ss.mo Sacramento, Rosario, Addolorata, Sacro Cuore di Gesù. In the past the clergy was numerous and the priests’ community in the parish church had ancient origins.
The façade, datable back to the first half of the ‘800, is of classical taste. It is organized on two articulated levels and it is concluded from a tympanic solution. The portal of entrance (1652), of Renaissance taste, is made of local stone. In the cuspidatus bells tower three bronzy bells of the 1686 are located.
The plant of the building is longitudinal. Inside the Church two arcades supported by twelve octagonal granite pillars define the three aisles. The major altar is of portelle; in Baroque style, it has the date <<1696>> and it is attributed to marble workers from Messina, while the portelle and the impending statues of St. Nicola and St. Bruno would be the craftsmen’ work from Serra San Bruno (1700). Paliotto e postergale polychrome marbles as the ciborium characteristic from two registers and bulbishape cuspide. Of Baroque taste and in polychrome marbles are also the four ancient altars of the navatelles. At the entrance two marmoreal shell shaped water fountain introduce a particular motive said teriomorfo. Plasters of the ‘700 and of the ‘800 adorn the inside in which a triumphal arc divides the central aisle from the choir. Of the ‘700 is considered the oval painting representing St. Nicola, the canvas of the Purgatory dated between the ‘800 and the ‘900 which is  attributed to Carmelo Zimatore, and the painting of the Pentecoste which is of the 2003 whose author was Francesco Verola. Some sculptures are wooden made, as the eighteenth-century choral stalemates, the benches and the pulpit.