Overview
It is Trapani's main monument, built between 1315 and 1332 and completely rebuilt in the main body in 1760, keeping intact the façade with its grandiose rose window and the beautiful early 15th-century Gothic-Norman portal. The mighty bell tower is distinctly Baroque (1650) and bears witness to the remodelling of the church and the adjoining Carmelite convent. Baroque is also the great interior where the two most interesting things are worth a stop: the 15th-century Fishermen's Chapel, of Arab-Christian inspiration, and the 16th-century Sailors' Chapel, whose apse in the shape of an enormous shell is surmounted by an Arab dome that is striking because of the yellow tuff. However, one comes here mainly to admire the treasure hidden behind the high altar in the Chapel of Our Lady, which is the actual shrine, dating from 1530. A sumptuous marble arch gives access to the presbytery covered with polychrome marble; on the altar, under a rich canopy, stands the statue of the Madonna and Child, the Madonna of Trapani, by Nino Pisano (circa 1360). Here is also the chapel of Trapani's other patron saint, St Albert, whose statue, an 18th-century work by Trapani silversmith Vincenzo Bonaiuto, is carried in procession on 7 August; the same happens on the 16th (but in copy) to the Madonna of Trapani.
