Knight’s Arch

Along the road that once led from Erice to Custonaci, on the former track of the knight Rizzuto, or Via del Cavaliere, near an ancient watering place, stand the remains (now much altered) of a chapel meant to house the painting of the Madonna of Custonaci (16th century), during the transports from Custonaci to Erice and back, documented from 1568 to 1936.

Originally it had a square plan and a structure open on every side with a large arch. The small domed roof was supported by four sturdy pillars, a fifteenth-sixteenth-century solution reworked from the square domed aedicules derived from the Arab-Norman pavilions.

Here the faithful stopped, refreshed themselves and restored themselves with bread and cheese during the “transports”. The local inhabitants offered food to the bearers of the sacred image, who had undergone hard labour.

A recent restoration (2009) turned the only arch of the ancient layout, called the Knight’s arch, into a lintel and rebuilt, not very happily, the remaining parts of the chapel.