San Placido, Catania

San Placido is a Roman Catholic church and former-Benedictine monastery located on the piazza of the same name in Catania, Sicily, southern Italy.

The church and monastery for nuns, following the Benedictine order, was inaugurated in 1420, putatively atop the ruins of an ancient Roman temple dedicated to Bacchus, and which legend held was also the site of a house in which Saint Agatha was born.

Documents highlight that the monastery also received gifts from Queen Blanche of Navarre, wife of King Martin I of Sicily.

[1] The monastery was able to recover and by the mid-19th century still had substantial incomes from its lands throughout the province, allowing them to purchase altarpieces for the churches such as the depiction of St Benedict (1858) from Michele de Napoli for 1500 ducats.

[3] The late-baroque church was designed by Stefano Ittar, and resembles the Borrominiesque facade the same architect used for the Collegiata in Catania, with a convex center, and protruding flanks with pilasters.