The Church of Santa Lucia alla Badia appears to be built in two different styles: the lower part is Picherali-style, with reliefs of the Spanish coats of arms, while the upper order decoration is a kind of Rococo variant resembling the wooden panels so common in Sicilian sacristies. Reliefs in the same style decorate the façade of Palazzo Borgia.
Overlooking the cathedral square, the church features a fanciful Baroque façade with Rococo elements, crossed by a long balcony with wrought-iron railings, behind which the nuns of the convent would follow ceremonies in the square.
Since 2009, the church has housed Il seppellimento di Santa Lucia (The Burial of St. Lucy), the impressive oil on canvas that Caravaggio painted between 1608 and 1609 during his stay in Syracuse.