Virgin Mary sculpture, Syracuse Cathedral, Sicily, Italy (photo)

Italy: A sculpture of the Virgin Mary by Sicilian sculptor Ignazio Marabitti (1719 - 1797), Syracuse Cathedral (Duomo di Siracusa), Piazza del Duomo, Syracuse, Sicily The origins of a temple on this site date to prehistory. The great Greek Temple of Athena was built in the 5th century BCE. The temple was a Doric edifice with six columns on the short sides and 14 on the long sides.

The present cathedral was constructed by Saint Bishop Zosimo of Syracuse in the 7th century. The battered Doric columns of the original temple were incorporated in the walls of the current church. The building was converted into a mosque in 878, then converted back when Norman Roger I of Sicily retook the city in 1085. The roof of the nave is of Norman origin, as well as the mosaics in the apses. As part of the increased building activity after the 1693 Sicily earthquake, the cathedral was rebuilt and the façade redesigned by architect Andrea Palma in 1725–1753.