The building is preceded by a wide staircase with several flights, adorned with sculptures of the twelve Apostles (supplemented by the presence of St. Paul replacing James the Lesser) traditionally called ‘Santoni’, distributed around the staircase in the shape of an ascending rectangle. The iconography is typical of the period in which the statues were made (second half of the 18th century) and thus the Apostles largely carry in their hands the instruments with which they were martyred. Archival documents prove the creation of new statues in 1881 by the local sculptor Pietro Napolitano and the payment in the same period of black pitch for the remaking of the staircase as well.

The church façade, referable to the early years of post-earthquake reconstruction, is rich in decorative details and has two orders. The first has three portals with half-columns and ‘broken tympanums’, decorated with coats of arms, leaves and winged heads, and two side windows. The second order, built in the second half of the 18th century and referable to the Rococo style, is joined to the first by spiral-shaped ‘volutes’ decorated with leaves. In the centre is a large window with a ‘broken mixtilinear tympanum’. The façade is closed by a concave-convex ‘tympanum’ with a statue of the Redeemer in the centre. On the façade you can admire the statues of: San Marziano, the Immacolata, San Cataldo and Santa Lucia. More in-depth research leaves room for further hypotheses. In particular, the statues on the right probably refer to two martyrs whose reliquary urns can be seen today in the Mazara Chapel in the left aisle of the church. Above the central door is the coat of arms of St. Peter the Apostle.

The stained glass window on the façade, made in the late 1960s and early 1970s, depicts the main theme of the Church of St. Peter the Apostle: Christ handing the keys to St. Peter against the backdrop of the basilica in Rome.

Follow us

• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube
• TikTok