In front of the Elimo-Punic walls, the mother church of Erice, dedicated to Maria SS.ma di Custonaci, was built in the first half of the 14th century at the behest of King Frederick of Aragon who took refuge in Erice for some time during the Vespers war (1314). The quadrangular bell tower with mullioned windows is slightly earlier and with original functions as a watchtower. The exterior of the church preserves the original Gothic forms. The pronaos with pointed arches is an addition of a century later and the rose window is of recent manufacture. On the right wall of the church the nine crosses are embedded, as tradition dictates, from the temple of Venus.
After the restorations that began after 1856, the church was distorted by its original fourteenth-century shape and of the ancient construction only the two rows of columns supporting ogival arches, the three-nave plan and the four side chapels remained.
