Santa Maria dello Spasimo
Santa Maria dello Spasimo is the ruin of a Gothic church building in Palermo . As a Gothic building, Santa Maria dello Spasimo has a special position among Palermo's churches, which are mostly baroque or Norman-Arabic style.
The construction of the church and the attached Olivetan monastery began in 1509 due to a papal bull from Julius II , but already about 70 years after its completion it was abandoned as a church because it was needed as part of the defensive structures due to its proximity to the city wall. The Senate of Palermo bought the church and convent in 1569, and the Olivetans were given the former Cistercian monastery of Santo Spirito, now part of the Grande Ospedale, as alternative quarters. The Pope allowed the worldly use of the buildings of Santa Maria.
During the plague epidemic in 1624, the buildings were used as a military hospital, then as a granary, poor house and hospital. After a long period of deterioration, a. due to the floods of 1931 and the earthquakes of 1940 and 1968, the ruins and their outbuildings were made accessible again in 1998; they now house a jazz school and serve as an event hall.
The original altar painting by Raffael Spasimo di Sicilia is now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid .
View into the presbytery
View to the rear of the central nave
Original altar painting
Web links
Coordinates: 38 ° 6 ′ 51.6 ″ N , 13 ° 22 ′ 19 ″ E
literature
- Anna Maria La Fisca, Giovanni Palazzo: Santa Maria dello Spasimo . Edizioni Guida, 1997, ISBN 9788885900332 (Italian).
- Jeremy Dummett: Church of Santa Maria dello Spasimo (St Mary of the Agony) . In: Palermo, City of Kings: The Heart of Sicily . IBTauris, 2015, ISBN 9781784530839 , p. 215.