Before the earthquake of 1693, the church of San Giorgio stood at the eastern end of Ibla, near the current Iblei Gardens. It was probably built starting from 1349 by will of the Chiaramonte family. The church had three naves, two side chapels and a baptismal font, the facade was decorated with five statues representing the Savior, Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist on one side, Peter and Paul on the other, the bell tower was completed in 1550 . During the long construction, the local nobles competed to enrich the church with furnishings; an example are the four statues dedicated to Saints Barbara, Rosalia, Agata and Lucia donated by the Castilletti Brothers, in addition to the numerous statues, some of which survived the earthquake, which can still be admired today inside the Cathedral, in the sacristy of San Giorgio.
The portal is in Catalan-Gothic style, decorated with a bundle of six small columns on a raised base with multiple foliated capitals on which rings of staggered, pointed-arched rings are set which sink in steps. On the arches fretwork decorations with images of leaves and animals, at the base of the ring the ancient traditional Iblean crafts are represented, including honey making. Inside the lunette there is a traditional Saint George on horseback killing the dragon, on the sides of the pointed arch you can see the Aragonese eagles, a sign of recognition of the time in which it was built and of the devout family. At the center of the pointed arch there is a cross worked in fretwork with floral decorations.
During the earthquake of 1693 the first church of San Giorgio collapsed almost entirely and it was decided to rebuild a new temple in another area; in 1744, seeing that the base of the current Cathedral had been built, it was decided to “adapt to the ground” what had not collapsed, so the walls were demolished, the altars and statues dismantled and the stone reused. One of the three naves resisted until the early nineteenth century and when the site was sold the clause was added to leave its memory. Only thanks to this has the Ancient Portal of San Giorgio reached us, which today all travelers can admire passing through via dei Normanni, near the entrance to the Giardini Iblei.
