The Basilica of Santa Lucia at the Sepulcher – Syracuse
The Church of Santa Lucia and the nearby Holy Sepulcher were considered extra moenia since they are isolated from the rest of Syracuse (even for this reason it was called the Church of St. Lucia outside the walls), and are located in the Santa Lucia district. The church, documented since 1100, probably stood in the same place as a Byzantine basilica destroyed by the Arabs.
The interior is covered with a dome, has a single altar in correspondence with the burial niche, and welcomes the statue of holy Lucia lying, carved by Gregory Tedeschi (1634).
In the post-war period on the baptismal font was installed the Bas-relief of St. John the Baptist, carved by Salvo Monica.
Saint Lucia Day
On 13 December Siracusa celebrates Santa Lucia patron, the statue is taken in a slow procession, from the Duomo to the Church of Santa Lucia at the Sepulcher; the procession is followed by an eighteenth-century carriage, with characters in vintage clothes. The following week, the procession takes the reverse course and the statue returns to the cathedral.
On the occasion of the celebration of Saint Lucia, takes place, as is tradition since 1970, the event Lucia of Sweden and Swedish Week, a sort of twinning between Syracuse and Sweden in the name of Saint Lucia. The event has the purpose of bringing together the Christian festivities celebrated in Syracuse during the celebration of the patron saint, to the Swedish tradition. Indeed, for many centuries, even in Sweden on December 13 it is a solemn day (on this day, in fact, the winter solstice marks the end of the long night): already the Vikings celebrated the return of light after months of darkness; from the Middle Ages, in the Varmland region, a girl dressed in white and wearing a crown of lights awoke those who slept, offering a cup of malvasia in honor of Santa Lucia. During the Swedish Week, debates, exhibitions and roundtables are organized on the main theme of the event, which each year focuses on a different topic of Swedish culture: the recent editions have been dedicated to cinema, theater, fiction, poetry, literature, and urbanism.