chiesa di San Francesco Borgia

When the Jesuits arrived in the mid-16th century to Catania, they were assigned the ancient church of the Ascencione located at this site. Corresponding to their growing influence, they commissioned a new church dedicated to Saint Ignatius Loyola, a few blocks from here, on the present via Etna, completed by 1578 and designed by Tommaso Blandino. When that building was razed by the 1693 Sicily earthquake, they chose the site of the Ascencione church to build a new baroque church was designed by the fellow Jesuit Angelo Italia, begun in 1698, and completed by 1736.
In 1767, the Jesuit order was expelled from the Kingdom of Naples; the college and church became government property, and were used for diverse schools and charitable organizations. In 1867, the Collegio building was used to house the Grande Ospizio di Beneficenza, which cared for abandoned infants (esposti) once they reached school age. It had room for 600 illegitimate abandoned children, boys only, aged 7 through 18, who were trained as typesetters, shoemakers, tailors, carriage makers, ironworkers, and furniture makers. The foundling home had a gym and musical training.
Since 1995, the college has been used by the region's cultural offices, and houses a regional library. The church is presently deconsecrated and used for cultural activities by the Soprintendenza Regionale ai Beni Culturali.
The facade has a more classical front, lacking curved lines, but has flanking columns to the portal, which above has a broken pediment. The facade has five statues of Jesuit saints. The center one over the portal is the titular saint, while the flanking lower two are Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier; the upper statues depict Aloysius Gonzaga and Stanislaus Kostka.
The interior layout is of a Latin cross with a central…