Chiesa del Gesù (Casa Professa)

The story

The Jesuits arrived in Palermo in 1549 and at the end of the 16th century began building their mother church, next to the Casa Professa, in the heart of the Albergheria. Work continued through the 17th century, and the interior decoration carried on into the next.

It is the masterpiece of marmi mischi: walls, pillars and chapels are lined with inlaid polychrome marble, with reliefs, cherubs and biblical scenes that leave no inch free. Sculptors such as Gioacchino Vitagliano and the Serpotta workshop contributed.

In 1943 a bomb destroyed the dome and part of the transept; reconstruction gave the church back to the city. The Casa Professa now houses the municipal library.

Why it is worth it

You stop on the threshold because the eye finds nowhere to rest: every surface is colour, figure, relief. Go close to the chapel walls and look at the small marble pictures of landscapes and animals, then step back to take in the whole. This is Palermo Baroque pushed to the limit, and it is worth understanding it here before seeing it anywhere else.