Church of San Martino

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Discover more about San Martino's medieval origins, its confraternity, surviving artworks and the adjoining buildings that formed part of the historic complex.

Medieval origins and rebuilding

In his book on Erice, author Matteo Tusa places San Martino, together with San Giuliano and San Cataldo, among the religious foundations traditionally associated with the Norman development of the medieval town. Earlier chroniclers attributed its foundation to Count Roger, but the first known documentary evidence dates from 1339.

Tusa describes the earlier church as small and Gothic in character. It was demolished in 1682 and replaced by a larger building financed by the Congregation of Purgatory. The resulting church has a Latin-cross plan with three naves divided by Tuscan columns. Tusa describes its architectural composition as Renaissance in character, despite the distinctly Baroque treatment of the entrance portal.

The confraternity and Purgatory

San Martino was one of Erice's three historic confraternity churches, together with Sant'Orsola and San Giovanni Battista. Tusa describes the town's confraternities as religious and social associations in which membership could be maintained through families and kinship networks rather than being based simply on place of residence.

Sources differ over the chronology of San Martino's association with the Congregation of Purgatory. Some modern accounts date a union between the two congregations to 1517, while Tusa gives 1593 for the foundation and aggregation of the Congregation of Purgatory and records a substantial legacy from Pietro Salerno. The congregation later financed the 17th-century rebuilding of the church.

Its presence is also reflected in the architecture: the Baroque entrance portal incorporates figures of the Souls in Purgatory among flames.

The Oratory of Purgatory

Beside the sacristy is the former oratory of the Brothers of Purgatory, decorated in the 18th century with Rococo stuccoes and frescoes and furnished with carved woodwork.

Tusa records that some of its original furnishings were removed and reused elsewhere before the oratory was restored. A carved wooden altar survives within the room.

Art and decoration

The monumental wooden group of St Martin on horseback dates from the mid-16th century and is attributed to the Ericine sculptor Curatolo. Carved, gilded and painted, it predates the present church and represents St Martin, still a Roman soldier, dividing his cloak with a poor man. Following restoration, the sculpture returned to San Martino in 2013 together with restored historic liturgical furnishings.

The main chapel contains a monumental 18th-century wooden choir attributed by Tusa to Leonardo Castelli of Parma. Towards the end of the century, the interior was further enriched with stuccoes, frescoes and paintings associated with Antonio and Vincenzo Manno.

The College of Studies

A Public College of Studies was also attached to San Martino, reached through a doorway on the south side of the church.

Tusa describes a small cloister and a portico with grooved limestone pillars supporting a stone-slab balcony, from which the classrooms on the upper floors could be reached. He also records that parts of the former college, particularly at ground-floor level, had undergone substantial later alterations.