Portal of San Giorgio
From the demolition to the recovery of memory
The Church of San Giorgio, demolished in 1958 due to a misguided urban planning decision by the administrators of the time—combined with the negligence of both secular and religious authorities and a lack of cultural sensitivity towards the preservation of historical, artistic, and monumental heritage—had its grand and splendid monumental white stone entrance portal recovered as a testament to the memory of a past and cultural heritage for the entire Sambuca community. This portal, dated 1565 as evidenced by an inscription, was retrieved after 60 years of oblivion and neglect and restored in 2018 with the help of a private sponsor. Reinstalled in its original location at the beginning of Sambuca’s Arab quarter, it serves as a scenographic backdrop that symbolically evokes the entrance to the now-destroyed church. The portal was set into a deep, rusted "blade"—in striking chromatic contrast to the stone—that, as noted in the inscription within the portal itself, reaches into the heart of the square, commemorating the profound rupture caused by the destruction of the town's oldest church. The inauguration ceremony was marked by a fanfare of bersaglieri, mounted knights and amazons on thoroughbreds, as well as pyrotechnic displays and streamers.
The portal of San Giorgio
We are in the square originally dedicated to Saint George—still referred to by many as "u chianu di San Giorgio" (the square of Saint George)—which is now named after the writer Emanuele Navarro della Miraglia.
The oldest church in Sambuca on the site of the ancient mosque
Here, on the site of an ancient Arab mosque near the entrance to the Saracen quarter, a church dedicated to Saint George was built in the 1500s. It is the oldest church in the settlement, and this portal serves as its testament. It was the first Christian place of worship in Sambuca, thus holding significant symbolic value as it marked the transition from the Arab period to the early Christian evangelization. The church originally had two tall bell towers: one was the original tower of the Zabut castle, which was incorporated into the Christian place of worship; the other, built to house the civic clock, gave its name to "lu chianu di San Giorgio".
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