Chiesa di Santa Caterina di Valverde

The church of Sant'Elia was built from 1694 after an earlier church was damaged by the Val di Noto earthquake of 1693. The cycle of frescoes culminating in the painting on the nave vault of St. Elijah on the Chariot of Fire and Elisha, painted in 1706 by Antonio Filocamo, was damaged in the southern Calabrian earthquake of 1783. However, the vault and the painting were restored during reconstruction and restoration campaigns. In the Messina earthquake of 1908, the church suffered limited damage consisting of the collapse of the ceiling near the top of the façade.

The church of Santa Maria Alemanna, founded in 1195, is a fine example of Gothic art in the Mediterranean region. Around 1485, the church was abandoned by the Teutonic Knights and passed into the care of the Arciconfraternita dei Rossi, which ran the adjacent hospital. In 1571, after the battle of Lepanto, a remarkable person found refuge here, the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes.

The construction of the Annunziata dei Catalani began in the second half of the 11th century (apse, transept, dome) and was completed at the beginning of the following century (façade and porches) after an earthquake. It seems that the builders of the church incorporated elements (columns) from an ancient temple of Neptune into its construction. The church has a typical plan of late Norman architecture in Sicily.