The Catena Headquarters
The main headquarters of the State Archives of Palermo is in the former Teatini convent, located on the outskirts of Cassaro, in Corso Vittorio Emanuele, between the Kalsa district and the Cala port.
The church of S. Maria della Catena
In very ancient times, when the sea still reached the city, beyond Piazza Marina and up to the Papireto river, the Cala represented the only entrance to the two inlets that formed the city’s large port.
On the edge of the Kalsa peninsula there was a church dedicated to S. Maria della Catena (Saint Mary of the Chain), the existence of which has been known since the 14th century. Next to it were two warehouses owned by the Royal Court, where a large iron chain was kept, which would be used to prevent access to the port in the event of enemy incursions. According to Fazello[1] this is what gave the church its name.
Tradition has it that at the end of the 14th century a miracle occurred in the church: three condemned men that were being led to the gallows were caught in a violent storm, and they took refuge in the church along with their jailers. The next day the chains appeared to have mysteriously been broken. The men were pardoned because the intercession of the Madonna was believed to be responsible for this.
The devotion towards the Madonna della Catena increased greatly following this miraculous event. During the following century the church was rebuilt, resulting in a wonderful example of Palermo’s Renaissance art, the work of the architect Matteo Carnalivari.
In 1581 the Viceré Marcantonio Colonna wanted to extend the Via del Cassaro to the Colonna road, now the Foro Italico, where the monumental Porta Felice was built. The church of the Catena, which jutted out over the Cassaro, underwent modifications, and the buildings adjacent to it were partly demolished.
The convent of the Theatine Fathers
In 1601 the fathers of the Theatine Order decided to found their own convent in Palermo and they were assigned the church of the Catena, also receiving three thousand scudi from the Senate of Palermo for the construction of their house.[2]
The convent of the Theatine Fathers, built in the early 17th century, was gradually expanded and improved in the following years. The Theatine Fathers, however, had already abandoned their home in the eighteenth century, preferring a more central area, the Quattro canti, where they built the sumptuous temple of St. Joseph, along with its adjoining convent. They used the old convent as a Novitiate and cared for it much less than what they did for their new location.
From convent to archive
In 1812, the Novitiate, at the time almost completely uninhabited, was transformed into a hospital for the British troops stationed in Sicily, engaged in the fight against Napoleon and in the defence of the Kingdom.
In 1814 the government needed to find adequate premises to house the archives of the offices abolished by the 1812 Constitution. In 1819, for the first time, in a report related to the relocation of the archives, the proposal was made by the vicar Prince Francis to allocate for this purpose the Theatines Novitiate. Already in 1824, the first batches of documentation were transported there and stored in various rooms of the convent.
After the organic law on archives of August 1st, 1843, the building was permanently designated as the seat of the Grande Archivio. Today the former convent is the main headquarters of the State Archives of Palermo.
[1] T. Fazello, De rebus siculis decades duae, Palermo 1558
[2] ASPA Real Cancelleria reg. 565 c. 136
Bibliography
A. Baviera Albanese, La sede dell’Archivio di Stato di Palermo, in La presenza della Sicilia nella cultura degli ultimi cento anni, Palermo 1977, pp. 721-736
[2024 ed. FG, tr. GV]
Ultima modifica: 26 Febbraio 2024