The absence of documentary references prior to 1669, the year in which it was visited by the vicar general of the Diocese of Agrigento, makes it difficult to establish a precise dating for this religious building, erroneously identified, according to popular tradition, as the town’s first parish. This hypothesis is not supported by the sources, which instead confirm the Church of San Cataldo, opened for worship in 1605—two years before the request and provisional acceptance of the licentia populandi. In the second half of the 18th century, the Church of Purgatory was governed by the Confraternity of the Lord of the Trade until 1820, an annus horribilis for the people of San Cataldo, who, after taking part in the uprisings, were harshly punished, including with the suppression of the confraternities. The church fell into ruin, and twenty years later, the priest brothers Francesco and Salvatore Cammarata financed its rebirth.
The façade features an oculus to capture light and a simple portal in calcarenite blocks, while at the top a bell gable with three arches marks the liturgical time. The nave, with a barrel vault, was restored in 2014. From inside the church one can access the crypt, once used as a colatoio for naturally drying out the deceased, who were placed on plaster chairs with a central hole to collect bodily fluids. Once this phase was completed, the bodies were moved to another room—now used as the sacristy—and hung in niches to be visited by relatives and friends until time consumed their skeletal structure. Only then were the remains placed in the ossuary, located in the same area.