Duomo di Taormina (Cathedral of Taormina), Taormina

Taormina Cathedral of Saint Nicolo di Bari can be found in Cathedral Square (Piazza Duomo) just off the Corso Umberto, the main street of Taormina. The battlements on the roof give the 13th-century Sicilian-Gothic-Romanesque church the nickname "Cathedral Fortress."

The large Renaissance rose window in the facade is directly centered above the main portal. Two Baroque-style Corinthian columns flank the main entrance. They are mounted on high plinths. Above the doorway is an architrave with a broken tympanum. The west wall portal dates from the 15th century. The east wall entrance is from the 16th.

The interior is in the form of a Latin cross plan. There are three naves with three apses. The middle nave is supported by pink columns of Taormina marble. The columns have capitals with leaf and fish motifs. Each doorjamb has 22 carvings of the symbols of the evangelists and the apostles.

The chapels feature the Holy Sacrament and Our Lady of Grace. In the right nave is the painting of the Visitation by painter Antonio Giuffre (1463). There is also a polyptych by Antonello de Saliba (1504) of the Madonna, a pieta of Saints Lucy and Ataga, and the Last Supper. The Famous Byzantine Madonna is covered in silver and precious stones.

In the left nave are lunettes by artist Alfonso Franco of the Enthroned Virgin, God the Father, and the Crucifixion. In 1980 the church was elevated to the status of a Minor Basilica by Pope John Paul II.