San Francesco all'Immacolata, Baroque church in central Catania, Italy

San Francesco all'Immacolata has a limestone facade built around 1854, with sixteen engaged columns and three statues: St Anthony of Padua, the Immaculate Conception and St Francis of Assisi. The interior is a Latin-cross basilica with three naves divided by six pillars and a floor of white and blue marble squares; the stucco decoration is by Giuseppe Gianforma with his son Gioacchino.

Queen Eleanor of Anjou, wife of Frederick II of Aragon, founded the first Franciscan church in Catania here in 1329 as a votive offering after the Etna eruption; she was buried here in 1343. The 1693 Val di Noto earthquake destroyed the building, which was rebuilt in the 17th century. A plaque and modern tomb in the crossing commemorate the queen.

On 2 August 1655, Viceroy Roderigo Mendoza y Roxas invited Sicily's bishops, including Catania's Marco Antonio Gussio, to make a solemn vow to the Immaculate Conception. The church keeps a 1745 processional statue of the Immaculate Conception attributed to Michele Orlando, and a chapel of the Souls in Purgatory once used by the Confraternity of the Slaves of the Immaculate Conception for burials in its crypt.

The church faces west onto Piazza San Francesco, with three doors on its limestone front. A gate and a balustrade with four pillars carrying statues of San Giuseppe da Copertino, Sant'Agata, Santa Chiara and San Bonaventura stand before the lava-stone steps. The northern turret serves as the bell tower.

The northern turret functions as a bell tower holding three bronze bells that have announced services for the city across centuries. Above sit iron weathervanes that indicate the cardinal directions.