Description
The church of San Giovanni Battista, founded in 1635, today presents itself in the expansion, carried out between 1751 and 1754, through the lengthening of the single nave, and finally consecrated in 1821. It is characterised by the main façade dominated by the Arab-Norman bell towers, culminating in two onion-shaped roofs, while on the two lateral façades there are buttresses in Baroque style which mark the secondary entrances.
Above the main façade is a niche containing the statue of Saint John, a 1754 work by Melchiorre Greco. The apse is frescoed with the Feast of Herod by Gaetano Bonsignore, a Barcellona painter active between the 18th and 19th centuries, as is the vault, painted with evangelical scenes by the Barcellona painter. The counterfaçade features a fresco of the Expulsion of the Merchants from the Temple, with a lively and swirling design, perhaps by Bonsignore himself. Other paintings, mostly from the 18th century, along with the pulpit, the wooden statue of the patron saint, and other sacred furnishings, enrich the exquisite interior of San Giovanni, declared a national monument in 1969. Beneath the floor lies the crypt, currently inaccessible, which extends the entire length of the nave.
In recent years, it has undergone various restorations (exterior plaster and roof in 1980, floor resurfacing in 1986), which have not always been of the highest quality, especially with regard to the restoration of the interior decorations, such as the poorly repainted faux marble. Following water infiltration, which threatened the roof's collapse, it was necessary to close the church for services in November 1993. Restoration of the roof and exterior plaster, begun in 1996, was completed in 2000, when it reopened for services.
