Page 121 - The Rough Guide of Sicily
P. 121
Oratorio del Rosario di Santa Zita
Entrance on Via Valverde • Mon–Fri 9am–1pm, ring the bell if closed, or ask in the church • €2.50
Stucco-seekers will find splendour aplenty behind the late sixteenth-century church of
Santa Zita (or Santa Cita) on quiet Via Squarcialupo. The marvellous Oratorio del
Rosario di Santa Zita contains some of the wildest flights of Serpotta’s rococo
imagination – a dazzling confusion of allegorical figures, bare-breasted women,
scenes from the New Testament, putti galore, and, at the centre of it all, a rendering of
the Battle of Lepanto. It’s a tumultuous work, depicted with loving care – notice the
old men and women, or the melancholy boys perched on the ledge, and look for
Serpotta’s symbol on the left wall, the golden snake.
