Chiesa di Sant’Agata al Carcere
Piazza Santo Carcere 7, Catania
The only Sanctuary dedicated to Agatha in the world. It contains a roman’s cell, known as the prison of Saint Agatha, where she was imprisoned and received the visit of Saint Peter, dying after three days tortures.
In the Sanctuary are preserved the so-called “Saint Agatha’s footsteps”, the altarpiece of Bernardino Niger (1588), the reliquary box in which the Agatha’s relics were carried in 1126. The church also hides few medieval fortifications and some walls of the Greek period. The magnificent doorway of the Santuary is characterized by the presence of allegorical figures. It was dismantled from the ancient Norman cathedral and then reused here in the second half of the 18th century.