This magnificent church is a great witness of Arab-Norman art in Sicily; in it the Byzantine, Romanesque, Arabic and Norman styles are combined.

It was built in the Byzantine era, probably on the ruins of an ancient pagan temple dedicated to Neptune, and was reworked in the thirteenth century, when, following a flood, the length of the naves was almost halved and it was necessary to build a new facade.

The oldest part of the building is the apse.

The main portal is surmounted by an Aragonese coat of arms and features Late Norman-Lombardian Romanesque characters in the capitals and Byzantines in the jambs.

The crypt below it is covered by a barrel vault and all around the walls has 14 niches, where they were left to dry the bodies of the dead.

The church is currently more than three meters below the current footprint due to both floods and the rubble of the earthquake of 1908, which brought down the insertions of the Baroque period and brought to light the most ancient structures.

Because of the following 1911 regulatory plan, the façade was demolished.

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