Sant'Agata al Carcere, Roman Catholic church in central Catania, Italy

Sant'Agata al Carcere is a Roman Catholic church on Piazza Santo Carcere in Catania. Its measured Baroque facade, rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake to a design by Francesco Battaglia, is reached by a broad flight of steps and a balustraded balcony, and is crowned by a broken pediment with a relief of Saint Agatha between two reclining angels. The 15th-century Gothic presbytery, with a ribbed bay on four Corinthian columns, survives inside.

The site contains Greek fortifications from the sixth century BC and imperial-era structures where Saint Agatha was allegedly imprisoned. The structural connection to the ancient cathedral demonstrates the location's importance in the city's religious history.

The church keeps a silver chest with part of the reliquary casket that brought Agatha's relics back to Catania from Constantinople in 1126, carried by the soldiers Goselmo and Gisliberto after the Byzantine general George Maniakes took them in 1040. A bejewelled half-bust of the saint is carried through the city in the February 3-5 festival.

The church stands at Piazza Santo Carcere 7, facing the apse of Sant'Agata alla Fornace; the apse of this church meets that of Sant'Agata la Vetere. A broad flight of steps with a balustraded balcony leads up to the portal, so the entrance is reached by climbing stairs. Remains of the 15th-century city walls run along the north side and the base of the facade, continuing east along via Colosseo.

The lava slab said to bear Agatha's footprints sits by the prison entrance, where a placard explains that she stood there before being pushed into the cell. The church also keeps part of the chest that brought her relics back from Constantinople in 1126, carried by the soldiers Goselmo and Gisliberto.