Church of Santa Nicola

Audioguide created in collaboration with the students of "A. Gussio" scuola secondaria di primo grado Sant'Alessio Siculo.

Narrated by Bianca Sinacori.

The building dates back to the second half of 1800s.

Probably, it was built by Mrs. Maria Antonietta Presipino's will. She was a noblewoman from Savoca, married to a merchant from Messina called Antonino Russo Gatto.

It is consecrated to St. Nicola from Myra, a saint whose miracles are often linked to the number three: three were the sister committed to perdition that he converted thanks to three bags of coins, that allowed them to marry; three were the bags of wheat that the saint donated to the hungry population of Lycia, his homeland; three were the children, barbarously killed, that he brought back to life.

Three were the prematurely death children of the Gatto-Prestipino family, who built the church to commemorate their memory.

Vincenzo Francesco Paolo, one of them, it is in fact buried inside the church.

The cult of St.

Nicola is widespread in the territory: another church consecrated to this Saint is located on the other side of the Agrò creek, in a hamlet called

Contura di Savoca.