The Church of the Gesu (chiesa del Gesù), Church of Saint Mary of Gesu (chiesa di Santa Maria di Gesù) or Casa Professa is one of the most important Baroque

Baroque architecture

Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...

 churches in the Italian city of Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

 and the interior of Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

.

History

The Jesuits arrive in Palermo in 1549 and in the late 16th century began building a church adjacent to their mother house (Casa Professa), to plans by the Jesuit architect Giovanni Tristano. At first it was formed of a single nave with large transepts and several side chapels but at the start of the 17th century, to make the church more grandiose as was typical of Jesuit architecture, Natale Masuccio

Natale Masuccio

Natale Masuccio was an Italian architect and Jesuit. Trained in Rome, he was expelled from the order in 1616. He mainly worked in Sicily on Jesuit projects, such as redesigning the Church of the Gesu in Palermo and designing the Jesuit complexes at Trapani , Messina and Sciacca and the Jesuit...

 revised the plan by removing the chapels' dividing walls to add two side naves to the central one. The church was finally dedicated in 1636. Later decoration included marble bass reliefs on the tribuna showing the Adoration of the Shepherds (1710–14) and the Adoration of the Magi (1719–21), by Gioacchino Vitagliano

Gioacchino Vitagliano

Gioacchino Vitagliano was a Sicilian Baroque sculptor. Works by him can be seen at the Church of the Gesu among other places....

 after modelli attributed to Giacomo Serpotta

Giacomo Serpotta

Giacomo Serpotta was an Italian sculptor, active in a Rococo style and mainly working in stucco.Serpotta was born and died in Palermo; and may have never left Sicily. His skill and facility with stucco sculpture appears to arise without mentorship or direct exposures to the mainstream of Italian...

 - both reliefs survive. A fresco of the Adoration of the Magi was also added to the walls of the second side-chapel to the right by Antonino Grano

Antonino Grano

Antonino Grano was an Italian painter and engraver, principally active in Sicily.-Sources:*http://www.comune.palermo.it/archivio_biografico_comunale/schede/antonio_grano.htm...

 in the second decade of the 18th century. The church also contains a high relief of The Glory of St Luke by Ignazio Marabitti

Ignazio Marabitti

Ignazio Marabitti was a Sicilian sculptor. He trained in Rome in the studio of Filippo della Valle, head of the Accademia di San Luca, but was mainly active in Sicily, where his most notable work is the Fontana del Genio a Villa Giulia....

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In 1892 the knight Salvatore Di Pietro, former rector of the Casa Professa, philanthropist, prefect of studies at the seminary, and member of the Theological College, of the Academy of sciences, letters and arts and of the Accademia di storia patria, by a decree of 1888, got the minister of public education Paolo Boselli to make the church a national monument. During the Second World War a bomb fell on the church's dome, causing it to collapse, taking with it most of the surrounding walls and most of the wall paintings in the chancel and transepts. These frescoes were replaced during two years' restoration work, after which the church reopened on 24 February 2009 with a solemn mass presided over by Paolo Romeo

Paolo Romeo

Paolo Romeo STL JCD is the current Cardinal Archbishop of Palermo. He was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI on 19 December 2006.Romeo was the fifth of nine children...

, archbishop of Palermo

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Palermo

The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Palermo was founded as the Diocese of Palermo in the 1st Century but was raised to the level of an archdiocese in the 11th century...

, and attended by several Jesuits and civil and military officials.

External links

• http://www.palermoweb.com/cittadelsole/monumenti/chiesa_casa_professa.htm