Mazara del Vallo - Santissimo Salvatore

Santissimo Salvatore Mazara del Vallo is a three-aisled cross-shaped columned basilica on a Norman foundation. Built in 1086, shortly after the conquest of the town by Roger I, it was restored in the Baroque style from 1696 onwards, using the original ground-plan, and in 1906 it was given a new façade. Remains of the original exterior can be seen in the east apse. The west part of the building and the crossing dome, which dates from the later restoration, dominate the square.

The clear proportions and exceptionally fine paintwork of the whole interior are impressive. The chancel is dominated by a sculptured group depicting the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor, a work by either Antonello Gagini or his son Antonino (1537). The Catholic church did not acknowledge the festival of the transfiguration until 1457, whereas in Byzantine art it had always been a frequently occurring motif. W. Krånig explains its occurrence in Mazara by the fact that the Greek church dignitary, Bessarion, who had fled from Byzantium to evade the Turks, although also residing in Rome, was Bishop of Mazara from 1449 to 1458 and presented the transfiguration icon to the cathedral. In the northwest corner of the cathedral stands a sarcophagus similar to that of Frederick II in Palermo, although, like another sarcophagus of this shape in the church of Santissimo Salvatore in Naro, it is not in the imperial purple (porphyry) color, but in green marble.

In the apse chapel in the north transept there is a 3.15m/10ft high painted wooden crucifix which was made soon after 1200 and is probably the oldest of many painted crucifixes to be found in Sicily.