Photo: Berthold Werner · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Chiesa Madre di Erice

Gothic Chiesa Madre of Erice, with a medieval bell tower, a portal showing Catalan influence and a Tesoro (treasury) with silverware, paintings and liturgical furnishings.

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About the museum

The Chiesa Madre of Erice, dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta, stands in Piazza Matrice, near Porta Trapani. According to tradition, a small church was built here as early as the 4th century, after the closure of the temple of Venus Erycina. The present Gothic building is dated to 1314, commissioned by Frederick III of Aragon, who was grateful to the city for its hospitality, and was largely complete by around 1372. The entrance porch was added in 1426, and the church was consecrated in 1697.

The layout is that of a three-aisled basilica with pointed arches on tall piers. The portal shows Catalan and Chiaramontane influences; nine crosses in Greek marble are set into the south wall, which according to legend came from the temple of Venus. Among the most important works are a marble altarpiece of 1513, attributed to Giuliano Mancino, and a statue of the Virgin Assumed, attributed to Francesco Laurana or Domenico Gagini. The restoration of 1852–1865 gave the interior the neo-Gothic character it still has today.

The bell tower was originally a 13th-century watchtower, converted into a bell tower at the end of the 14th century. It is about 28 metres high, with a square plan and three levels. In the chapels of the left aisle the Tesoro di Erice is displayed, with silverware, paintings, sculptures, textiles and liturgical objects, including a 15th-century chalice, a censer of 1503 and a monstrance of 1602.