Terme della Rotonda

According to recent studies carried out in 2004–2008 and again in 2015, the Terme della Rotonda would date back to the 1st–2nd century CE. Enlarged during the 3rd century CE (a period of considerable enrichment for the city of Catania) the thermae were then abandoned. Towards the end of the 6th century CE, and in the Byzantine era, a church was then built on the Roman ruins. Alongside the Bonajuto Chapel, La Rotonda represents the only surviving Byzantine building in Catania.

Arguably dedicated to St Mary the Virgin since its first establishment, the church was originally oriented to the North. From the 9th century to the 16th century, the grounds surrounding the church were used as a graveyard, and several tombs can still be seen amidst the ruins of the Roman baths. The 1169 Sicily earthquake partly destroyed the Byzantine chancel. The church was then re-oriented to the East, and a new ogival portal was opened on the West wall, opposite the new altar. In the 16th century, a new entrance was opened on the South wall, and the church was again re-oriented to the North.
The building was long considered to be the oldest church in Catania, an inscription originally placed above the entrance suggesting that St Peter himself had consecrated it to St Mary in 44 AD. Early modern historians believed the dome to be a Roman structure, and many went as far as to conjecture that it may have served as a model for the Roman pantheon. This tradition held sway until the 18th century, when the Roman baths were unearthed, and the dome revealed to be of later construction. Ignazio Paternò Castello, an eighteenth-century Sicilian aristocrat and archaeologist, interpreted the baths as part of a more extensive spa complex extending as far West as Piazza Dante.
The church was damaged in the…

Roman thermae

The thermae consisted of several rooms and pools. The main room (number 1 in the picture) was arguably a frigidarium, a room with a cold bath. To the East is the calidarium, a room with a hot water bath (number 2). This room was heated through a Hypocaust system beneath the floor. The pilae stacks (or suspensurae) which once supported the floor are still clearly visible. To the West of the frigidarium is a large room paved with marble slabs. To the South are several other rooms dating to the 2nd and 3rd century: two small circular rooms (perhaps saunas – number 4 in the picture on the right) with hypocaust floors, and a tepidarium, a room with a warm bath. Other quadrangular rooms are to the North of the frigidarium, in the area where the church now stands. The remains of the Castellum aquae, a tank or reservoir connected to the aqueduct, and a courtyard surrounded by exedras that served as the main entrance to the baths, can still be seen next to the church.

Church
The building, with a square plan, has two entrances – one on the South wall, with a 16th-century limestone portal, and one on the West wall, with a 13th-century Gothic portal. The main chancel is opposite the South portal and the remains of a second one can be seen to the right of the main entrance. The dome is 11 m in diameter.

Frescoes

The "restorations" carried out by Guido Libertini in the 1950s led to the destruction of most of the frescoes that once covered the interior walls of the Church of Santa Maria della Rotonda. Nevertheless, the chancel still preserves fine medieval frescoes. The figures of two saints can be seen in the western apse (on the left hand side as you enter the chancel). The first one, on the right, represents St. Nicholas and dates back to the 12th century. Other…

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