Church and Convent of San Vito

Let's visit, together, the churches

The ancient church and the surrounding land a few decades later were, therefore, granted by the Municipality to the Observant Friars Minor of the Order of Saint Francis to build the convent.

Restorations and renovations

The first certain news is from October 1589 when the Archbishop of Monreale, in a new pastoral visit to Bronte, ordered that the altar be removed from the church and from 1592, when the Viceroy Count of Olivares ordered "... that for the construction of said convent the meat tax be granted for three years, which amounts to 25 ounces per year".

From these two dates the small church has undergone numerous restorations and renovations over the centuries:

 it was restructured in 1643 (being prior P. Antonio from Bronte);

 the inside was restored and decorated in 1879 (by Nunzio Capizzi Monachello);

the apse was completely renewed with rich gildings and ornaments in 1880 (by the dean Giuseppe Ardizzone);

the balustrade of the major altar was constructed in 1894 (care of the friar Francesco of Bronte).

A final restoration was recently done (2019/2020) with the arrangement of the roof and the facade, the resurfacing of the flooring and the restoration of the internal plaster. In this last work, simple but precious decorations that embellish the nave were discovered and restored, presumably dating back to the restoration of 1879.

There is no information, however, about the construction of the choristers' area, composed of a solid vaulted volume resting on marble columns (access is exclusively from the adjacent convent).

It is also certain that the view that Agostino Attinà handed down to us in the drawing publi­shed by P. Gesualdo De Luca (History of the City of Bronte, 1883) is, especially in the location of the bell tower, much more beautiful and different from the current form.

It appears from the census of 1714 that there were only 8 friars in the Convent, becoming 10 in that of 1736.

The prospect

On the prospect, simple and tidy, concluded at the top with the tympanum just mentio­ned, stand out the black shape of the basaltic portal of beautiful proportions, with floral decorations engraved in bas-relief, and the central prismatic flight of steps in lava stone.

The inside

The inside to one only nave, with apse and cantor' area, has rich gildings and ornaments which reach the maximum deco­ration in the hemispherical part of the apse.

The church has seven altars: to right Sant' Anto­nino, San Vito and San Pasquale; to left San Giuseppe, San Francesco and the Crucifix.

The major altar, adorned with polychrome marble, is consecrated to the Immaculate Virgin (the wooden statue is precious).

On it there are four columns with Corinthian capitals which support the overhang of the frame on which the vault of the dome is set.

In the choir loft (accessible only from inside the convent) you can see a wooden choir with seats and backrests connected at the top by an inlaid frame on small columns and sculpted capitals, a revolving legion on a hexagonal base and a painting on canvas depicting a seated Franciscan monk.

Next to the convent, once upon a time, there was a small cemetery where the poor were buried (the current Via Campo dei Fiori, see the 1850 map below), a right that the University of Bronte had reserved for itself when it handed over the church to the Friars Minor.
 

San Vito in a drawing from 1883 and as it is today. The unfortunate changes made to the façade are evident. On the right and below, the beautiful portal in lava stone with floral decorations carved in bas-relief.

A spectacular lava flow creates a background for the two edifices (Currenti photography). Placed in an eleva­ted position with respect to the town, the church and the convent of San Vito stand out in the brontese pa­no­rama.

In the cantors sitee (accessible only from the inside of the convent) can be seen a wooden chorus with seats and backs joined together by an inlaid cornice on small columns and scul­ptured capitals, a rotating music stand over a hexagonal base and a painting on cloth showing a seated Franciscan monk.

At the dawn of August 10th 1860 Selva (so cal­led because went in a spacious convent Selva (forest) of San Vito), in the presence of all the brontese population, Nino Bixio had shot five presu­med culprits of slaughters and arson of the Fatti di Bronte of the 1860.

In their memory, in the October of 1985, to the feet of the flight of steps that brings to the chur­ch's square, the council had a monument erected, on occasion of a Con­vegno-processo on the facts of 1860. The two plates affixed to the monument say: "Ad perpetuam rei memoriam of citizens brontesi that in the August 1860 gave their life in holocaust" - "Town Council October 10th, 1985".