St Thomas of Chanterbury (Mother Church)

The Cathedral of San Tommaso of Canterbury is the most important church in Marsala.  It overlooks the Piazza della Repubblica and it is dedicated to Saint Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, an English Catholic martyr.  Also called, "Matrix in Dialect," the Mother Church of Marsala is in Baroque and Norman style. It was built around 1176 and it was originally the main facade that overlooked Piazza Maggio, which later became the side entrance.

Adjacent to the Mother Church, was the Tapestry Museum.  The museum housed eight Flemish tapestries of the sixteenth century, which narrate the military campaigns of Vespasian against the Jews.

The tapestries were donated to the Mother Church of Marsala in 1589 by Francesco Lombardo from Marsala, archbishop of Messina, and they now reside in Palermo to be restored.