Church of Saint Lucia alla Badia

Churches, Culture
Via Santa Lucia alla Badia, 2 - 96100 Siracusa

    The Church and the Cistercian convent dedicated to St. Lucia had a prominent place in Syracuse, because of its location in the heart of Ortigia and especially for the feast of St. Lucia in May, established in memory of a miracle of the Patron Saint during the famine of 1646 (still celebrated on the first Sunday in May), commemorated by an inscription still existing in the church below the choir of nuns. St. Lucia alla Badia seems to be built in two different styles, in the manner of the Picherali with reliefs of Spanish coats of arms and with the Rococo-style decorations.

    In the church there are the vault decorated with a eighteenth century fresco and many artworks placed on the main altar (“Martyrdom of St. Lucia”) and on the sides of this.
    Since 2009 the church houses “The Burial of Saint Lucy”, huge painting (oil on canvas 300×408 cm) that Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio painted between 1608 and 1609 during his stay in Syracuse, following the escape from Malta.