Maria Santissima Annunziata, Minor basilica in Comiso, Italy

Maria Santissima Annunziata is a minor basilica in Comiso with a Baroque white stone facade, its central nave linked by volutes to the aisles, whose doors carry bronze bas-reliefs. The Latin-cross interior measures 55.90 by 32.45 metres, with three barrel-vaulted naves on ten round arches and cylindrical columns, and a dome over the crossing.

The church replaced San Nicola di Mira, documented before 1125 and ruined by the 1693 earthquake. Work on the new building to a design by Giovan Battista Cascione Vaccarini began in 1772, funded by Gabriele Distabile, the clergy and the townspeople, and stopped in 1793 unfinished. The dome was completed in 1885 and one of the two planned bell towers in 1896.

The church was the town's original mother church, dedicated to San Nicola of Bari; in 1480 the title passed to Santa Maria delle Stelle because the parish, serving Comiso's Greek community, kept the eastern Greek Orthodox liturgy. The 1862 Taledda, a Crucifixion canvas by Pietro Quintavalle measuring 19 by 7 metres, hangs inside.

The church faces Comiso's central square, with the main doors set between bronze bas-relief panels; the single bell tower completed in 1896 rises beside the facade. The interior is a Latin cross 55.90 m long and 32.45 m wide, so allow time to walk the three naves and reach the apse. Look up at the 1885 dome over the crossing.

Look up at the counterfacade for the 1862 Taledda, a canvas of the Crucifixion by Pietro Quintavalle measuring about 19 metres high and 7 wide. The church also keeps a white marble and bronze baptistery by Mario Rutelli, completed in 1912 and inaugurated on 15 August 1913.