Located in Catania’s Piazza Dante are the Benedictine Monastery and the Church of San Nicolò.
The building of the Church of San Nicolò (San Nicola) began in 1687 but was interrupted by the earthquake in 1693, when a lot of Catania’s buildings were destroyed. The church was later finished with impressive dimensions: the aisle and two naves are 105 meters long and the dome is 62 meters wide.
The Benedictine Monastery, now the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy for the University of Catania, is the largest in Europe.
The fact that it looks more like a palace than a monastery might be due to the close links with the nobility of the time and the Benedictine monks. During the eighteenth century it was one of the most important cultural centers in Sicily, attracting many visitors.
