The present Church of Saint Lucy is the third dedicated to the saint in the city.
The First Church (1614–1830)
Near the northern gate of the city, known as Porta di Santa Lucia (now disappeared), stood the Church of Our Lady of the Arch in Saint Lucy, consecrated on April 13, 1614. A congregation dedicated to Our Lady of the Arch was linked to it. The church rose at the northern edge of the Santa Flavia or Santa Venera quarter (today the Santa Venera district), at the corner of the present Via Arimondi.
In 1830, together with the northern gate, it was demolished to allow the construction of the new consular road to Palermo.
The Second Church (1838–1943)
A few years later, between 1838 and 1846, during the widening works of the city’s main street—then called stratuni di Santa Lucì, now Corso Umberto I—a new Church of Saint Lucy was built, just a few meters away and in front of the demolished one.
This second church stood until World War II, when it was almost completely destroyed by the Allied bombing of July 9, 1943.