Cathedral of San Giuliano: Caltagirone’s Cathedral and Minor Basilica
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Italian, Kingdom of Sicily, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Spanish
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page16 sections
History
The Cathedral of San Giuliano is the principal Catholic church of Caltagirone, Italy, and the seat of the Diocese of Caltagirone. Its present Tuscan-style form emerged through reconstruction in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, after an earthquake destroyed much of the earlier building. The cathedral follows the Roman Catholic rite and is dedicated to Saint Julian of Le Mans, traditionally identified as an apostle sent by Saint Peter to Gaul.
From the Norman church to the sixteenth-century rebuilding
Tradition places the foundation of the original church in the Norman period. The building had a single nave, an attached bell tower, Arabesque or “Byzantine” stucco decoration, and an apse facing east. An inscription on the entrance architrave associated an early rebuilding in 1282 with an architect named Magister Gofredus.
An earthquake in 1542 partly destroyed the church. Restoration followed quickly, although the upper section of the bell tower remained truncated. In 1575, the Council of Jurors installed a clock on the tower. On 23 April 1582, the city authorities resolved to replace the church with a larger building on the same site, with its front oriented east. Francesco Zagarella of Ragusa received the commission, assisted by the lay Jesuit architect Giacomo Firini of Messina. Work began in 1598, and a further project was commissioned from Simone Gullì in 1627.
Earthquake, reconstruction, and completion
The new church was planned as a Latin cross with three naves. The earthquakes of 9–11 January 1693 destroyed the old bell tower and brought down the vaults and dome. Reconstruction in the form seen today was entrusted to Simone Mancuso of Agrigento, assisted by the Palermo builder and stonecarver Giuseppe Montes. The earlier Norman church, which Gullì had retained within the building, was removed during this phase.
The rebuilding included a facade begun from its foundations and a bell tower with a trifora, an opening divided into three parts. The tower was completed in 1756. During the second half of the eighteenth century, two decorated stone portals were added to the exterior, designed by Natale Bonaiuto of Syracuse. In 1773, the municipality replaced the clock above the central door with a more accurate mechanism paid for from public funds.
Nineteenth-century transformation and ecclesiastical status
During the first decades of the nineteenth century, Bishop Gaetano Trigona e Parisi ordered a major transformation of the interior. Emanuele Di Bartolo of Palermo designed the stucco and painted decoration, working with the stucco artists Gaetano Signorelli of Syracuse and Agostino Perez of Palermo, as well as the painter and sculptor Giuseppe Vaccaro. Bishop Benedetto Denti later commissioned marble facing for the altar of Madonna della Mercede, a new white-marble floor, and a small wooden episcopal throne.
On 12 September 1816, Pope Pius VII established the Diocese of Caltagirone through the papal bull Romanus Pontifex and raised San Giuliano to cathedral status. This made it the episcopal seat and principal church of the diocese, the Catholic ecclesiastical jurisdiction served by the bishop. In the same act, the collegiate church of San Giacomo Maggiore received the title of minor basilica.
The facade was redesigned by Saverio Fragapane between 1908 and 1913. Pope Pius XII elevated San Giuliano itself to the rank of minor basilica in 1948, an honorific papal title distinct from its function as a cathedral. The elevation was celebrated on 27 January 1949 with a solemn pontifical Mass presided over by Bishop Pietro Capizzi. The cathedral forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage property Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto, inscribed in 2002 under criteria (i), (ii), (iv), and (v).
Remains
Plan and exterior
Latin-cross interior plan
The cathedral has a basilica plan shaped as a Latin cross, with three naves divided by pillars. The rebuilding introduced taller white-stone columns to support the vaults and large dome. In the nineteenth-century remodelling, the Tuscan columns, whose forms are plain and comparatively austere, were enclosed within massive piers carrying Corinthian-style decoration. The floor, originally paved with white maiolica tiles, was later replaced with white marble.
Facade and portals
The exterior includes Saverio Fragapane’s facade, designed between 1908 and 1913, and two decorated stone portals created from designs by Natale Bonaiuto in the eighteenth century. The central area of the facade contains the clock installed in 1773, replacing the earlier clock that had been positioned above the central door.
Bell tower
The bell tower has a trifora and was completed in 1756. A bronze Madonna made by Ugo Tarchi in 1950 occupies a dedicated niche within the tower. The tower also preserves the history of the earlier church’s clock, first installed by the city authorities in 1575 and replaced in 1773.
Painted and stucco decoration
Vaults and transepts
Giuseppe Vaccaro’s painted cycle of 1862 presents scenes from the Old and New Testaments. The central nave vault includes the Sacrifice of Abel, Noah’s Ark, Abraham’s encounter with the prefiguration of Christ, the offerings of Melchizedek, the punishment of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and the transport of the Ark to the Temple of Jerusalem.
The right transept contains the Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, interpreted as the end of the ancient worship. The left transept shows the Delivery of the Keys of the Kingdom to the Apostle Peter. In the presbytery vault, the Institution of the Eucharist draws its inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper.
Triumphal arch
The triumphal arch carries a draped curtain and elaborate stucco depicting the allegorical figure of the Christian Religion. The crowned figure wears a papal tiara and holds a Eucharistic monstrance, the liturgical vessel used to display the consecrated host, together with a cross. Two putti accompany the figure; one holds a scroll bearing words from Thomas Aquinas’s liturgical hymn Tantum Ergo Sacramentum, including the phrase “… ET ANTIQVVM DOCVMENTVM, NOVO CEDAT RITVI…”
Sculpture, paintings, and devotional objects
Works associated with the Vaccaro family
Works associated with the Vaccaro family include Patronage of Saint James, an oil painting from 1855, and Jesus among the Doctors from 1859. Other nineteenth-century works are Saint Cajetan Distributing Alms, Saint Philomena, and Mary Magdalene, the last an oil painting. The group also includes a terracotta Nativity inspired by Sicilian Baroque and Christ Risen, an 1850 oil painting located in the chapter hall.
Funerary and Marian images
Giuseppe Vaccaro carved the life-size wooden Dead Christ in 1850 from a single cypress trunk. The figure is placed in a decorated urn used during the Good Friday procession, followed by a platform bearing a statue of Our Lady of Sorrows. A separate wooden and glass Urn of the Dead Christ was designed by Salvatore Marino in 1851 and carved from willow wood by Giuseppe Polizzi in 1853.
A sixteenth-century black wooden Crucifix is attributed to the Messinese artist Giovannello de’ Matinati. The sixteenth-century marble Madonna della Mercede belongs to the Gagini school, the Sicilian Renaissance tradition of marble sculpture associated with the workshop and artistic descendants of the Gagini family. Vincenzo Nigido’s Our Lady of Sorrows, dated 1856, wears black velvet and a gold star ornament, with a heart pierced by a small silver sword.
Other religious works
A seventeenth-century reliquary urn contains a representation of Blessed Lucy of Caltagirone. The Stations of the Cross, made in 1960, is a monochrome ceramic work by the Caltagirone sculptor and ceramic artist Gaetano Angelico. Giuseppe Barone’s Saint Charles Borromeo in Prayer, commissioned by Bishop Giovanni Bargiggia in 1936, is connected with the cathedral and housed in the diocesan museum.
