Chiesa dei Minoriti, Baroque church in Via Etnea, Catania, Italy

San Michele Arcangelo ai Minoriti is a Sicilian Baroque church on Via Etnea in Catania. Its pilaster-rich facade, designed by Sebastiano Ittar, has two orders and a marble stairway leading to a double staircase inside. The interior is a Greek cross with a deep choir and a high dome at the crossing; two monumental marble holy water stoups stand by the entrance stairs.

The Clerics Regular Minor, called Minoriti in Catania, arrived in 1625 at the invitation of bishop Innocenzo Massimo and received an older church of St Michael Archangel in 1628. The 1693 Val di Noto earthquake levelled it, and the new church and convent were built in the second half of the 18th century, with the dome begun in 1771 and finished in 1787. The monastery was suppressed in 1866 and its rooms passed to the provincial council and the prefecture.

The church is still known locally as dei Minoriti, the Catania name for the Clerics Regular Minor, the order founded by Saint Francesco Caracciolo and approved by the pope in 1588. In the left transept chapel, a 16th-century panel of the Archangel Michael is covered in embossed silver.

The church sits on Via Etnea in downtown Catania and welcomes visitors freely without admission charges. As an active place of worship, visiting hours may shift around service times so checking ahead helps plan your visit.

The dome came later than the main structure, completed between 1771 and 1787 with blue tiles that scatter sunlight throughout the interior. This delayed addition creates a visual effect that catches visitors' attention when they look upward.