Colourful ceramic workshops close off Piazza Guglielmo II together with the linear flank of the Chiesa degli Agonizzanti, datable to the 16th century thanks to restoration, which bears witness to the passage of time, with fragments of the Norman walls and a faded Fascist-era inscription.
Until the beginning of the 15th century, the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament owned an ancient chapel inside the cathedral bell tower, which was later abandoned. The increase in the number of brethren, together with the need to care for the sick or collect alms, called for the construction of this new church on a portion of the Norman defence system. With a single nave, it has an unusually positioned entrance, an indication of a later remodelling. This choice certainly appears to have been influenced by the presence of the procession road built in 1583 by Archbishop Ludovico I Torres. The interior features an architectural and sculptural decoration of allegorical personifications in stucco attributed to Procopio Serpotta. Recently, the church was entrusted to the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George.
The short flight of steps adjacent to the church originally corresponded to a gate in the walls almost on axis with the entrance to the cathedral, which allowed those coming from outside to access the abbey area. An ancient street paved with marble and river pebbles, Via Torres, follows part of the old Norman wall layout on which the towers once stood, now no longer visible because the spaces in between have been replaced with new structures, workshops and laboratories overlooking the town hall. A small circular stone basin, leaning against the wall and supported by a column, reminds us that the district was once rich in water and public fountains.
Credits: Arch. Paola La Scala