Discovered as Pastime: Church of Saint Matthew of Cassaro

Inside the Church of Saint Matthew of Cassaro, Palermo, Sicily/Italy

Meanwhile my friend was at a hairdresser and I didn’t want to wait there sitting around I explored a little more of Palermo. And ‘accidentally’ I entered a church – like there are many in Palermo. It was a great discovery!

The church of Saint Matthew of Cassaro is situated in the Corso Vittorio Emanuele or the once road to Cassara. Just in the middle of high buildings with shops on the ground floor and apartments on the upper ones. A very steep stoop lead me to the inner part of the church. And that was amazing!

Incredible rich of art, paintings sculptures and decorations of any kind the church was a real surprise. One man sitting and collecting a free entrance fee (for helping the maintenance of the place) the church was all mine.

It is not a huge one but wandering around I could see a lot of artistic work.

The Baroque building was built in 1633 in one of the oldest streets of the city, the Cassaro. But already on a pre-existing from 1088 when it was a monastery when it was first of Basilian monks and 200 years later of the Dominican order.

Around 1559 there was founded a new order by Leonardo Galici: the brotherhood of Miserimini. They would pray from dust to dawn for poor people.

The facade s made of gray marble and looks relatively dark from outside. For sure also because of being dirty from smog. Three statues are present: The Holy Mary, and two saints – I presume Saint Matthew is one.

Inside the church is like most churches are in a Latin cross shape. Two rows of columns divide in three naves. There is a beautiful low-relief over the entrance. Many artists worked the rich inside decoration with statues, paintings and more.

It has a crypt I haven’t seen but should be interesting.

I came out and was totally overwhelmed by so much beauty. Thinking about the cathedral which is one of the most beautiful cathedrals I have ever visited this is not too much less. A masterpiece of fine art and very impressive. So the moral of the story is: enter everywhere, even in places that from outside seem not be be anything special. You could have a real surprise!