Paolo Amato, the “Architect of the Santuzza”, was born in Ciminna on January 24, 1634. Like his older brother Vincenzo, a great musician, he went to Palermo as a young man to study in the archiepiscopal seminary, but continued to cultivate his great passion for mathematics and architecture.
Many works were built based on Don Paolo’s designs. Among the most important: the church of SS. Salvatore, belonging to the Basilian nuns, and the church of the priests’ hospital in Palermo; the sumptuous chapel of SS. Crocifisso in the cathedral of Monreale and the façade of San Giovanni Battista Church (SS. Crocifisso in Ciminna).
With the creation of the first triumphal chariot dedicated to Santa Rosalia, dating back to 1686, Don Paolo Amato earned the nomination of architect of the Palermo Senate. He is also responsible for designing the decorative apparatus of many churches in Palermo and for creating all the ornaments that enriched the city on the occasion of the feast of Santa Rosalia: arches, triumphal chariots and scenic apparatus for fireworks, expressing the baroque taste for wonder, which conquered the people.
He died at the age of 80, on July 3, 1714, and was buried by his own will in the church of Crociferi in Palermo in the same tomb where his brother and mother rested.
