Santa Maria della Catena, Palermo
Santa Maria della Catena is a church in Palermo, Sicily, Italy.
The church was built in 1490-1520, designed by Matteo Carnilivari. The name derives from the presence, on one of the walls, of a chain which closed the Cala port.
The work mixes late Renaissance style and Gothic-Catalan style, the latter especially visible in the three-part arcaded loggia located at the top of a staircase. The interior is also late Gothic, and includes a canvas of Nativity with Adoration of the Shepherds by an unknown master, and 16th-century bas-reliefs attributed to Vincenzo and Antonello Gagini, who also sculpted the capitals of the columns and the entrance portals.
Annexed to the church is a 1602 convent house, which, starting from 1844, has been the seat of the State Archive.
