Church of San Francesco Borgia

The Church of St. Benedict was built in the 15th century when Benedictine nuns settled on the present site to erect their church. After the Val di Noto earthquake in 1693, the complex was rebuilt from 1704 and completed in 1763 with work on the façade by Giovanni Battista Vaccarini and the interior decoration and fresco painting by Giovanni Tuccari. After the 1943 bombings that hit the building hard, the splendid frescoes painted between 1726 and 1729, largely covered at the end of the 18th century, resurfaced.

The church of San Francesco d'Assisi all'Immacolata is located on the site where the Franciscan order settled in the 13th century. In 1329 the Queen Consort of Sicily Eleanor of Anjou promoted the construction of the primitive convent and church of St. Francis of Assisi all'Immacolata. Destroyed in 1693 by the Val di Noto earthquake, the church had to be rebuilt in the 18th century.

For its dual religious and defensive function (against Saracen incursions), Catania Cathedral was called the fortress church (Ecclesia Munita). The church was dedicated to the city's patron saint, Saint Agatha, by Ansger in 1094. The 1169 earthquake destroyed the vaults and damaged the columns and its exterior walls. The reconstruction was destroyed by the 1693 earthquake, which shook a large part of eastern Sicily hard.