Church of the Gesù, Palermo

Church of the Jesus
Chiesa del Gesù (in Italian)
Façade of the Church
Basic information
Location	Palermo, Italy
Geographic coordinates	38°06′46.53″N 13°21′41.98″E / 38.1129250°N 13.3616611°E / 38.1129250; 13.3616611Coordinates: 38°06′46.53″N 13°21′41.98″E / 38.1129250°N 13.3616611°E / 38.1129250; 13.3616611
Affiliation	Roman Catholic
Rite	Roman Rite
Province	Archdiocese of Palermo
Country	Italy
Architectural description
Architectural style	Sicilian Baroque
Groundbreaking	1590
Completed	1636

The Church of the Gesù (chiesa del Gesù), Church of Saint Mary of Gesu (chiesa di Santa Maria di Gesù) or Casa Professa is one of the most important Baroque churches in the Italian city of Palermo and in all of Sicily.

The Jesuits arrived in Palermo in 1549, and by the late 16th century began building a church adjacent to their mother house (Casa Professa) using a design by the Jesuit architect Giovanni Tristano. The original design called for a single nave with large transepts and several side chapels, but it was changed by the early 17th century, to a more grandiose layout typical of Jesuit architecture. Natale Masuccio removed the chapels' dividing walls to add two side naves to the central one. The church was consecrated in 1636.

The interior decoration included marble bas-reliefs on the tribuna depicting the Adoration of the Shepherds (1710–14) and Adoration of the Magi (1719–21), by Gioacchino Vitagliano, after designs attributed to Giacomo Serpotta - both reliefs survive. A fresco of the Adoration of the Magi was also added to the walls of the second side-chapel to the right by Antonino Grano in the 1720s. The church also contains a relief of the Glory of St Luke by Ignazio Marabitti.

In 1892, cavaliere Salvatore Di Pietro, former rector of the Casa Professa, philanthropist, prefect of studies at the seminary, and member of the Theological College, of the Academy of sciences, letters and arts and of the Accademia di storia patria, convinced in 1888 the minister of public education, Paolo Boselli, to decree the church a national monument.

In 1943, during the Second World War, a bomb collapsed the church's dome, destroying most of the surrounding walls and most of the wall paintings in the chancel and transepts. These frescoes were replaced during two years' restoration work, after which the church reopened on 24 February 2009 with a solemn mass presided over by Paolo Romeo, archbishop of Palermo, and attended by several Jesuits and civil and military officials.