page_title: Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, Alcamo
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, Alcamo / History
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Carlo Brogi (1850-1925) - "Alcamo - Cattedrale e campanile". Numero di catalogo: 13.790. English: Carlo Brogi (1850-1925) - "Alcamo - Cathedral and church tower". Catalogue # 13.790.
context_page_description: The Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta is a 14th-century basilica in Alcamo, province of Trapani, Sicily, southern Italy. It is named after the Assumption.
context_section_description: The first mother church of Alcamo, positioned on the north side of the quarter of San Vito, was first dedicated to Our Lady Source of Mercy (Santa Maria Fonte della Misericordia, 1200) and then to Our Lady with the Star (Madonna della Stella). This Church is still existing under the name of Santa Maria della Stella, though in a state of abandonment.
  In 1332 the inhabitants of quarter of San Vito moved near the castle of the Counts of Modica, and for this reason a new mother church was built in the same place where the present one is located and it is dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption. This church opened to worship in 1402, was built in a Catalan-Gothic style with a nave and two side aisles and had a wooden ceiling and side chapels not aligned. It was enlarged and modified in 1471, 1530-1558 and 1581.
  Today we can only see the bell tower with double lancet windows (restored in 1942), the chapel of the Holy Thorn and the Baptistery.
  About the 16th century it gave the name to one of the four districts in which Alcamo was divided, the so-called "Maggiore Chiesa".
  In 1602 in this Church they founded the company of Santa Maria dello Stellario (Our Lady of Stellario), formed by countrymen ("villani") and butchers ("macellai"), transferred to church of Stellario in 1625.
  The church was rebuilt in 1669 by Giuseppe Diamante and Angelo Italia  (an architect from the Society of Jesus), while the neo-classical façade was realized in 1786 by Emanuele Cardona.
  In 1918 in the mother church they founded the congregation of the Sacramentines, then the congregation of Ursulines (1919) and the Assuntines (1936).
  Until the first half of the 20th century, the dome was covered with majolica tiles, later replaced with copper plates. In 1954, year of Mary, on the first centenary of the introduction of the Immaculate Conception's dogma, a 3-metre-high (9.8 ft) statue of the Madonna was placed on the bell tower.
  In May 1969 the Church of Our Lady's Assumption was elected as a basilica.
  The garden adjoining the church, since the 15th century,  was used as a cemetery for poor people, with an altar where to celebrate Mass during maladies and a stone cross with an aedicula sacred to Our Lady of Mercy. In the 20th century it became a public garden and in 1929 they placed the War Memorial, realized by Bentivegna, a sculptor from Sciacca.
caption: The Church in the first years of the 20th century: it is visible the high part of the bell tower, modified in 1942, and the dome's majolica coating.
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