They found them in the choir loft of the church, where it had been difficult to get there for years because the staircase was no longer there.
Don Vito Buffa, rector of the church of Ss. Pietro e Paolo in via XI Maggio in Marsala since 2021, glimpsed the hand of a statue and, with the help of an installer, they managed to climb into the choir and thus they were discovered. The two statues of Saints Peter and Paul were presented to the city after a careful conservative restoration carried out by Gaetano Alagna from Marsala. The two valuable works, made of poplar wood hollowed out inside, date back to the 16th century and belong to the church that was part of the monastic complex. That of San Pietro was the first to be made, according to an initial investigation, in the early 1500s. The Saint, in his original manufacture, was also sculpted with a long cope.
Of this remains a painting on the back that Gaetano Alagna restored bringing it back to its beauty. “No part has been integrated – explains Alagna – only keys in the hands of Saint Peter and a sword in one hand were added to Saint Paul”. The statue of Saint Paul, on the other hand, was made shortly after that of Saint Peter, presumably around the middle of the 16th century. “The two works are neither signed nor dated – explains the historian Maurizio Vitella – but, through the comparative method, we can assume that the one of Saint Peter was commissioned to the Matinati workshop in Messina, while the one of Saint Paul is likely to be from the western area very close to the language of the Lo Cascio workshop”. At the presentation of the restoration yesterday in the church-rectory (owned by the Fondo Edifici di Culto, an agency of the Ministry of the Interior) there were the vice Prefect Luciano Zanta Platamone, the rector of the church Don Vito Buffa, the priests Don Marco Renda, Don Vincenzo Greco, Don Mariano Narciso and the Bishop Emeritus of Ragusa Monsignor Carmelo Cuttitta. In the church-rectory, Holy Mass is celebrated every morning at 7:30 (on Sundays, in the summer, at 8).
