Church of St Mary of the Gate

The church of Santa Maria della Porta, also known as degli Schiavi (of the Slaves), took its name from its position beside the Guardiola square, where one of the gates into the town, the Porta della Guardiola, once stood. From 1672 the church housed the confraternity of Santa Maria degli Schiavi, whose duty was to collect alms to help prisoners and to ransom Christian slaves captured by Barbary corsairs.

Inside one may admire the canvas depicting Saints John and Luke, attributed to the Castelbuono painter Giovanni Giacomo Lo Varchi, who worked in the circle of the Zoppo di Gangi. The altarpiece of the high altar deserves particular attention: it depicts the Return of the Holy Family from Egypt and was painted in 1620 by the well-known Giuseppe Salerno. The inscription on its base may be read as the returning of the slave, the restitution of the slave, a reference to the charitable and welfare purpose of the confraternity.