November 18, 2019 - POLYSEMi Portal

The Basilica of Saint Nicholas

Bari, Basilica di San Nicola (author: Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61405024)

The Basilica di San Nicola, commissioned by the Benedictine abbot Elias in 1089, was consecrated in 1197. The cultured abbot wanted to erect a building that combined various functions and meanings. It had to be a pilgrimage church, the main church of Bari people and a landmark for those who came from the sea and immediately faced the shape of its soaring towers.

Within the urban fabric, after walking alongside the castle and the cathedral, following today’s Via delle Crociate, and crossing the Arco angioino (the Angevin arch), we get to Piazza di San Nicola.

The basilica, the manifestation of Apulian Romanesque architecture par excellence, stands out in its austere and white tripartite façade, enlivened only by small blind arches in succession until the main portal tympanum and, on the upper register, by the light and dark effect of single-lancet and mullioned windows.

The solid volumes of the building can be clearly perceived thanks to the deep arches running along the side perimeter of the building.

The upper register is lightened on both sides by the elegant succession of six-light windows, which, as stone embroideries, let the light create interesting sculptural effects.

It is a totally homogeneous structure, similar to a fortress, which recalls the big Romanesque cathedrals in the North as for the façade flanked by two imposing towers, but encloses the domes and vaults volumes in rectilinear structures, in line with the Middle East construction techniques and as a tribute to a long Apulian tradition. In order to allow for the flow of pilgrims, who visited in large numbers Saint Nicholas’ relics, along the basilica perimeter there are five decorated portals with sculptures able to combine the beauty of shapes and the rich educational content. In the basilica sculptural decorations, all energy of the Apulian Romanesque style emerges: worlds inhabited by monstra, obtained directly from the Northern bestiaries, coexist with precise classical echoes enriched with clearly Islamic motifs, which are taken from cloth and valuable objects that reached Apulian coasts together with pilgrims and merchants.

In particular, the so-called portal of the lions is worth noting: it opens on the left side of the basilica, just under the first deep side arch. Along the archivolt, the epic of the Normans – the new Lords of Bari – is told through sculpture. With an extraordinarily successful ductus in terms of narration and propaganda, the elegant patterns of the Bayeux Tapestry seem to acquire new life and shapes in these sculptures, arrived in town to tell the stories of the Lords from the North to the new southern subjects.

Bayeux Tapestry, 11^th century, today at the Centre Guillaume-le-Conquérant in Bayeux: a detail

Bari, Basilica di San Nicola, portal of the lions, 12^thcentury, a detail

On the contrary, a clearly more Mediterranean style connotes the sculptures of the two column-bearing oxen that ornate the prothyrum of the basilica main portal, made by an anonymous sculptor able to combine local classical tradition motifs with a fully Romance and European style.

For ages the elderly inhabitants of the old town have been telling a legend to the travelers stopping in front of the church. When the Myra Saint’s body came to town:

i cittadini non erano d’accordo sul luogo dove riporlo. Perciò fu stabilito di prendere dei buoi dalla campagna e di deporre le reliquie in una chiesa da costruirsi lì dove gli animali avessero trasportato il carro. Allora i buoi trassero il carro sul quale era stato posato il santo corpo dalla riva del mare. E la chiesa di San Nicola fu costruita lì, nel mare, donde l’acqua penetra talvolta nella cripta. (A. Adorno, Itinéraire d’Anselme Adorno en Terre Sainte)

Actually the basilica location, despite the legend, is not fortuitous but meets precise symbolic and political needs. The new palatine church had to rise where the Katepano Palace was located, in order to indicate that the patron Saint and the Norman Lords who had supported the church construction were about to take the place and role once occupied by the Byzantines; furthermore, the location close to the sea had to highlight the close relationship of the town with the Adriatic Sea. Therefore, the basilica apse area, facing the sea, is like a second façade, with a very large window decorated with carved animals. They are elephants and sphynxes, which, in addition to their symbolic meanings, refer to the East reached and left by pilgrims and merchants boarding in Bari under Saint Nicholas’ protection.

Bari, Basilica di San Nicola, sphinx carved in the apse window, a detail.

The church interior has a Latin cross plan with reduced transept wings and is divided into three naves by very big Oriental columns – decorated with carved capitals – that alternate with pillars. The transverse arches were built after the first construction stage instead.

In the chancel area, the travelers may admire the so-called Abbot Elias’ cathedra. The throne, intended for the abbot, is entirely carved out of marble by an artist able to combine the Byzantine elegance in the decorative elements with Romanesque expressionism connoting the telamons that support the throne, whose faces show the effort to bear the load and the burden of sin.

Bari, Basilica di San Nicola, interior, Abbot Elias’ cathedra

isultati immagini per cattedra abate elia

Bari, Basilica di San Nicola, interior, Abbot Elias’ cathedra, a detail

In this solemn Romanesque setting, the elegant art de cour, imported from Île-de-France by the Angevins, who succeeded to the Normans and the Swabians as leaders of the town, and the oriental purely Byzantine splendor of the crypt, full of sumptuous ornaments and icons, dialogue in an interesting contrast (M. S. Calò Mariani, L’immagine ed il culto di san Nicola a Bari e in Puglia).

The crypt may be accessed through a staircase in the aisle that leads the faithful to a spiritual dimension, thanks to the abundance of icons, lamps, precious metal ornaments, fabrics and embroideries, which contribute to make the view of Saint Nicholas’ relics, here kept, extremely evocative.

Bari, Basilica di San Nicola, crypt. (GNU Free Documentation License)

Bari, Basilica di San Nicola, crypt, the column in the grating.

The crypt is not only the site of the sacred, but also a place of narration and legend, where everything contributes to lead the faithful to meditation and the traveler to listening, as the ancient column surrounded by a grating in a corner. Various legends have been passed down about this object over the centuries and have contributed to increase Bari people’s and pilgrims’ devotion to Saint Nicholas. It is said that, after the Council of Nicaea, Nicholas went to Rome to pay tribute to Pope Sylvester. There, in front of a loose woman’s house about to be demolished, he saw a nice column and drove it into the Tiber, through which it miraculously reached Myra port. Back from Rome, he put it in the cathedral of his town. As it had miraculously reached the Anatolian city, it is said to be floating again in Bari’s waters, when the saint’s relics came to town. However, nobody was able to get it. The night before Saint Nicholas’ relics were placed in the new church that was consecrated to him, the inhabitants of Bari heard the bells ringing, rushed to the basilica and saw a holy bishop complete the work, placing a pink column with the help of two angels (See A. Beatillo, Historia delle vita, miracoli, traslatione, e gloria dell’Illustrissimo confessore di Christo s.Nicolò il Magno, arcivescovo di Mira, patrone, e protettore della città di Bari).

Since then, that column, which is said to have traveled from the East to the West, exactly as Saint Nicholas’ cult, has become an object of devotion on the part of local people, pilgrims and especially marriageable women.

A lot of artworks coming from the Basilica are now kept in the Museo Nicolaiano in the old town, located at 3 Strada Vanese not far from the church.

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The church of Vallisa

Bari Vecchia, Church of Vallisa, (author: Gigi Scorcia is licensed under CC BY 2.0 )

<a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/7994827@N03/2847030066″>”in giro di domenica con 38°C all’ombra”</a>by <a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/7994827@N03″>Gigi Scorcia</a> is licensed under <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=ccsearch&atype=html” style=”margin-right: 5px;”>CC BY 2.0</a><a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=ccsearch&atype=html” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer” style=”display: inline-block;white-space: none;opacity: .7;margin-top: 2px;margin-left: 3px;height: 22px !important;”><img style=”height: inherit;margin-right: 3px;display: inline-block;” src=”https://search.creativecommons.org/static/img/cc_icon.svg” /><img style=”height: inherit;margin-right: 3px;display: inline-block;” src=”https://search.creativecommons.org/static/img/cc-by_icon.svg” /></a>

The church of Vallisa is a small Romanesque basilica, commissioned by the Ravello and Amalfi merchant communities that were in town in the Middle Ages. The name “Vallisa” is derived from the dialect word Raveddise, used by Bari inhabitants to indicate the Ravello merchants. The three semicircular apses that characterize the rear of the church overlook Piazza Ferrarese.

The building, dating back to the 11^th century, has its entrance in Strada Vallisa, one of the small and typical alleys that cross Bari Vecchia old town. The façade is preceded by a deep three-arched porch. The interior has a simple basilica plan with three naves terminating in as many apses. This place, so different from the past, has maintained its austere and mystical charm. Today it is a deconsecrated church, used as a diocesan auditorium where various music shows take place.

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The Cathedral of Molfetta

Molfetta, Cathedral of San Corrado –public domain-

The church, built on the edge of the old town to house the remains of Saint Conrad, who died in Puglia in 1154, stands close to the spectacular quay, as a landmark for people reaching Puglia from the sea.

It is not clear when it was exactly erected, probably at the end of the 12^th century. The sacred building, in its uniform structure, embraces different architectural and decorative models: the longitudinal plan with aligned domes, very common in this region, combines harmoniously with a transalpine Norman style, as that adopted in the Basilica di San Nicola in Bari. The façade compact block is dominated by the imposing side bell towers, lightened by the effect of the mullioned windows through which the blue sky seems to pass.

The aligned domes in the Cathedral of Molfetta, externally concealed by pyramidal roofs – built in local stones, using the chiancarelle^[1] technique stand out for their monumental nature and the fascinating light effects, created by these big white prisms that come to life due to the sky and sea reflections.

Molfetta, Cathedral of San Corrado, side elevation. (author: Dantes102 – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4744135)

The side walls are enlivened by a sequence of intersecting oriental style blind arches, which document the continuous relationships of the town with overseas lands.

In the interior, where Byzantine, Romanesque and Muslim elements harmoniously coexist, one has the feeling of being caught by the curvilinear space of the deep apse, the hemispheric domes above and vaults, which seem to enlarge the side walls creating a symphony of volumes that intersect and echo.

T. N.: Limestone slabs. ↑

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The Cathedral of Canosa

In Late Antiquity, the most important town in Puglia was Canosa, which had achieved great distinction between 514 and 566, thanks to the works promoted by Bishop Sabinus, the dedicatee of the Cathedral that hosts his remains, miraculously reappeared in town after his death near Potenza, according to hagiographic legend.

During the Early Middle Ages, Canosa, due to its location on the Via Appia-Traiana, was considered a very important strategic center through which the Lombards, who wanted to contain the Byzantine influence, could control the South of Italy.

The Cathedral, located in the main square of the town is worth visiting. It was built in the 9^th century and consecrated in 1101 by Pope Paschal II. It is not clear what is left of its original appearance or how deep the changes it has undergone over the centuries are. The external facade, entirely rebuilt in the first decades of the 19^thcentury, is definitely the most damaged part.

On the contrary, the interior still preserves its old Medieval charm: the cruciform architecture has an extremely original covering solution, with three aligned domes, located over the nave longways, and other two domes on the transept wings.

There are valuable ancient spolia material inside, derived from old Roman buildings; in particular, the beautiful green marble columns that mark the nave are worth noting.

Among the liturgical furnishings, it is possible to admire a cathedra and a highly valuable carved pulpit, which document the early influence of the Romanesque style on the region and its singular Apulian interpretation.

Canosa, Cathedral, interior.

(author: Von Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59320598)

Canosa, Cathedral, interior, the bishop’s throne

(Author: Von Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59320341)

In the middle of the apse, behind the high altar, the traveler may admire a very beautiful marble throne, built between 1079 and 1089 for Bishop Ursone by a sculptor named Romualdus, who left his signature on one of the arms of the precious seat.

The bishop’s throne, partly made up of pieces from an older one, is supported by two imposing, austere and rigid sculpted elephants, which seem to walk frontally in time. They bear two sheets on their back, decorated with lion heads and plant motifs, which support the seat raised on the front by a sheet ornate with two eagles facing the viewer within a rinceau frame.

The arms rest on carved panels with oriental and mythical animals, sphynxes and griffins, which will be officially part of the Apulian Romanesque sculpture decoration over the 12^th century.

In this throne, the already Romanesque immediacy of expression coexists with the Byzantine and Eastern geometric elegance, monumentally expressed especially in the imposing elephants bearing the throne.

Moving onto the nave, it is possible to admire the marble pulpit built by the sculptor Acceptus, dating back to the first decades of the 11^th century.

This artwork in Canosa documents how in Puglia, already in the 11^th century, Byzantine and Eastern art combined with a more realistic and expressive style, which was purely European and Romanesque.

Canosa, Cathedral, interior, pulpit.

(author: Von Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59320195)

References:

P. Belli d’Elia, Alle Sorgenti del Romanico. Puglia XI secolo, Edizioni Dedalo, Bari 1975;

F. Abbate, Storia dell’arte nell’Italia meridionale. Dai longobardi agli svevi, Donzelli editore, Roma 1997.

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Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta

RUVO DI PUGLIA

CATHEDRAL OF SANTA MARIA ASSUNTA

Ruvo di Puglia is an important rural centre in Apulian Murgia. Its origin dates back to the times of the Peucetians, an ancient Italian people that had settled in Apulia by the 7^th century BC.

The importance of this town, which was a Roman municipium and the seat of one of the first dioceses in the region, lies in its strategic location along the Via Traiana. In fact, Ruvo was a stopover on the road coming from Benevento.

In the nice Medieval old town, characterized by an intricate system of alleys and passageways, one of the most beautiful cathedrals in Puglia rises. This 13^th-century church still fascinates the traveler thanks to its singular elevation with very slanting slopes, the richly decorated main portal, and in particular the large twelve-ray rose window that opens on the main façade. The small hanging arches that ornate the church hut profile are enriched with carved shelves with plant motifs and clearly classical-inspired animal and human heads. Probably local sculptures got inspiration from the various classical vases and finds that Ruvo’s soil returned profusely, since in ancient times the town was one of the most important center in the Apulian pottery production.

The church interior has a basilica plan with three naves terminating in as many semicircular apses.

Speaking to the sexton and paying a symbolic sum rather than a real ticket, it is possible to visit the church hypogeum, which allows the tourist to make an ideal journey back to Ruvo’s past, up to the Neolithic age, thanks to the finds here preserved and the archaeological evidence found, including ancient tombs and remains of prior sacred buildings dating back to the early centuries of Christianity.

Ruvo di Puglia, Cathedral

(author: Sailko – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59430789)

THE JATTA MUSEUM

Ruvo, Palazzo Jatta, author: Cunhal94 is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

<a href=”https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19759736″>”File:Palazzo Jatta Ruvo di Puglia.JPG”</a>by <a href=”https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Cunhal94″>Cunhal94</a> is licensed under <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/?ref=ccsearch&atype=html” style=”margin-right: 5px;”>CC BY-SA 3.0</a><a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/?ref=ccsearch&atype=html” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer” style=”display: inline-block;white-space: none;opacity: .7;margin-top: 2px;margin-left: 3px;height: 22px !important;”><img style=”height: inherit;margin-right: 3px;display: inline-block;” src=”https://search.creativecommons.org/static/img/cc_icon.svg” /><img style=”height: inherit;margin-right: 3px;display: inline-block;” src=”https://search.creativecommons.org/static/img/cc-by_icon.svg” /><img style=”height: inherit;margin-right: 3px;display: inline-block;” src=”https://search.creativecommons.org/static/img/cc-sa_icon.svg” /></a>

We cannot leave Ruvo without visiting the Jatta Museum, not only for the rich heritage of Apulian vases it hosts, but also for the setting in which they are displayed: the Neoclassical-style palace named Palazzo Jatta. The museum is one of the few examples in Italy of a private collection, which was assembled between 1820 and 1935, remained intact and was set up in a late nineteenth-century style.

It hosts a valuable collection made up of more than two thousand vases, found in Ruvo thanks to the effort made by Giovanni Jatta and his family and their passionate archaeological research. The Jatta family wanted to put an end to the habit of sacking tombs and sepulchers for market and speculation purposes, hence they started to purchase artifacts from antique dealers and lead excavating campaigns, saving most of the territory historical heritage from grave robbers and smugglers. The precious family collection is the Jatta Museum collection. One of the most valuable pieces is an Attic krater dating back to the end of the 5^th century BC and located in room 4. The vase depicts a scene from the Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodius, Talos’ death. We can see the elegantly painted figure of the giant who falls, supported by one of the Dioscuri, due to Medea’s spell.

Ruvo, Jatta Museum, the vase of Talos (author: julianna.lees is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 )

<a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/27305838@N04/14257714594″>”Museo Jatta – Jatta Museum, Ruvo, Ceramics of Magna Graecia”</a>by <a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/27305838@N04″>julianna.lees</a> is licensed under <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/?ref=ccsearch&atype=html” style=”margin-right: 5px;”>CC BY-NC-SA 2.0</a><a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/?ref=ccsearch&atype=html” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer” style=”display: inline-block;white-space: none;opacity: .7;margin-top: 2px;margin-left: 3px;height: 22px !important;”><img style=”height: inherit;margin-right: 3px;display: inline-block;” src=”https://search.creativecommons.org/static/img/cc_icon.svg” /><img style=”height: inherit;margin-right: 3px;display: inline-block;” src=”https://search.creativecommons.org/static/img/cc-by_icon.svg” /><img style=”height: inherit;margin-right: 3px;display: inline-block;” src=”https://search.creativecommons.org/static/img/cc-nc_icon.svg” /><img style=”height: inherit;margin-right: 3px;display: inline-block;” src=”https://search.creativecommons.org/static/img/cc-sa_icon.svg” /></a>

The Jatta Museum is located in Ruvo, Piazza Bovio 35.

Opening times: Monday-Friday: 8.30 a.m. – 1.30 p.m.; Saturday: 2.30 p.m. – 7.30 p.m.; Sunday: 8.30 a.m. – 1.30 p.m. (First and third Sunday of each month)

Itineraries

The Passion Itinerary

Ruvo, Canosa, Molfetta, Bari, Taranto, Corfu, Lefkada

This itinerary was conceived as a journey across Italy and Greece during the evocative Catholic and Orthodox Easter celebrations. The journey, which develops in Ruvo di Puglia, Canosa, Molfetta, Bari, and Taranto and, in the Ionian Islands – Corfu and Lefkada – will allow the traveler to come into contact with colored processions, Passion plays, culinary customs and old ritual traditions, often between religion, folklore and apotropaic beliefs.

The historian Franco Cardini writes:

La celebrazione della Pasqua è senza dubbio una delle più antiche della liturgia cristiana […]. Probabilmente già dal I secolo i cristiani festeggiavano la Pasqua, che presto dovette essere collegata anche alla prima domenica di plenilunio di primavera […]. (F. Cardini, I giorni del sacro: i riti e le feste del calendario dall’antichità a oggi.)

The Catholic church inherited rituals and ceremonies belonging to preexistent religions and had to enrich salvation symbolism, embodied by Christ’s resurrection, with further meanings, typical of rural and pastoral Mediterranean civilizations. In fact, Easter represents also the spring celebration of plants and fields that come back to life after winter.

In the week before Easter, Puglia turns into a big stage where the episodes of Christ’s death and resurrection are performed live as Sacre Rappresentazioni^[1] or processions. In almost every town, confraternities, cultural associations or Pro Loco (local tourist offices) organize events, parades, and music shows that mark the dates of Easter liturgy and the end of winter. A clarification is thus necessary: the traveler who will choose to follow this itinerary may not cover all the stages since the dates of the different events overlap. However, he/she may select the events to be attended in person or ‘virtually’, following their slow pace through the works of the literary guides chosen in the proposed journey.

In the Christian liturgical tradition, precisely emulated by the popular one, Easter time is connoted by great festivals and processions that culminate in the Holy Week, but start during Lent, namely forty days before Easter. The anthropologist and art historian Emanuela Angiuli explains:

La liturgia cattolica fa iniziare il ciclo con il mercoledì delle ceneri, primo giorno di quaresima. In molte località [della Puglia], ancora oggi, la quaresima – periodo di preparazione della morte e resurrezione di Cristo, caratterizzato da divieti alimentari e sessuali, giacché non si consuma carne, non si contraggono fidanzamenti né matrimoni – è rappresentato dalla Quarantana, un pupazzo fatto di pezze nere, il petto trafitto da penne di gallina, appeso ai crocicchi, dondolante come uno spettro. (E. Angiuli, La Pasqua, in Viaggio in Provincia)

1. T. N.: Italian theatrical forms that deal with religious episodes.

One of the places mentioned by the writer is Ruvo di Puglia: a small town in Apulian Murgia, surrounded with vineyards and olive groves, with a thousand-year history linked to agricultural tradition. Here our itinerary may start.

During Lent we can see some puppets hung on the balconies of the Medieval old town alleys: they represent an old lady wearing mourning who is considered the Carnival’s widow. On Eastern Sunday these puppets are burnt using firecrackers. The ritual, called the burst of Quarantane, indicates the end of penance and the victory of life over death, as well as the victory of spring over winter. Emanuela Angiuli narrates:

Ogni giorno la Quarantana perde una piuma, finché nel giorno della Resurrezione, scoppia, riempita di petardi, buttando per aria altri mille stracci neri. Uscita dalla fantasia e dalle feste medievali, la vecchia pupazza incarna l’altra faccia della passione, una sorta di Addolorata alla rovescia, maschera pagana di quell’angoscia di distruzione che l’inverno – interruzione del tempo produttivo, della speranza alimentare – apporta nell’immaginario contadino. […] Le cerimonialità quaresimali, ridotte oggi a processioni di accompagnamento funebre e ad azioni teatrali nelle sacre rappresentazioni, appartengono in realtà ad una concezione festiva apocalittica, propria delle culture agro-pastorali nel mondo mediterraneo pre-cristiano. (E. Angiuli, La Pasqua, in Viaggio in Provincia)

The Holy Week rituals in Ruvo, included within the Italian intangible heritage by IDEA, Istituto centrale per la demoetnoantropologia, do not end with the folkloric burst of Quarantane, but continue throughout Easter, starting on Friday before Palm Sunday.

The procession of the Vergine Desolata is particularly moving; it takes place on Passion Friday^[2], namely one week before Good Friday. The statue of the Virgin dressed in black – also called Madonna del Vento since they say a singular breeze always blows during the procession – is carried on the shoulders of the members of the “Purificazione di Maria Santissima Addolorata” Confraternity. The Virgin’s procession starts from the church of San Domenico and ends at the Cathedral.

2. T.N.: It is the term that before the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican indicated Friday preceding Palm Sunday.

Canosa, women dressed in black who accompany the procession of the Vergine Dolorosa

(Αuthor: Luigi Carlo Capozzi – it:Utente:Campidiomedei – Transferred from it.wikipedia to Commons da Fradeve11 using CommonsHelper., CC BY 1.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4282013)

It has been found that in the Holy Week processions – especially the penitential ones, in which drama prevails on liturgy – the protagonists are female characters as the Vergine Desolata or Addolorata (Our Lady of Sorrows) who grieve over the loss of their child, just like the goddess of fertility Ceres/Demeter mourned her daughter Persephone’s death; this confirms the close link between Easter rites and rural pre-Christian rituals:

Sembra quasi di percepire, nei lunghi percorsi che l’Addolorata attraversa, rappresentata da una statua o da una donna vestita di nero, alla ricerca del Figlio, […] il lamento di Cerere, della grande madre Cibele, menomata all’improvviso, nella mitologia greca e romana, di quella “parte di sé” che rendeva feconda e fertile la terra con l’arrivo della primavera. (E. Angiuli, La Pasqua, in Viaggio in Provincia)

Many of these processions, despite dating back to the Middle Ages, have rituals that directly recall Greek and Roman tradition. For example, the procession of Mater Dolorosa in Canosa is accompanied by the crying of ladies dressed in black that clearly evoke the pagan mourners, women that hurried to grieve for the dead and sing funeral songs during funerals.

Let’s leave Ruvo and Canosa, after visiting the most interesting monuments in these sites, specified in the related links, and head for Molfetta, located on the Adriatic coast in the norther side of Bari, to participate in the Good Friday procession. The intense dramatic force of this show is also enhanced by the singular musical accompaniment provided by the band, one of the features of Apulian folklore events and religious ceremonies.

The Bari musicologist Pierfrancesco Moliterni will introduce us to this melodic world:

All’interno della cultura della festa patronale e della particolare funzione che in essa riveste la banda da giro, caratteristica ed esclusiva è la sua presenza – durante le cerimonie religiose della Quaresima e delle Settimana Santa – nella cittadina di Molfetta. La processione delle statue che simboleggiano la passione di Cristo […] viene preceduta da un particolarissimo “sottogenere” della grande banda da giro: la cosiddetta bassa banda, o banda dei “tammurr” (tamburi). Essa è composta da pochissimi suonatori, di solito in numero di quattro, i quali intonano una specie di trenodia che risuona alla testa della processione, per richiamare l’attenzione dei fedeli all’imminente passaggio cerimoniale.

Il suono di una melodia triste e dolce insieme (flauto) intervallata dal rullo del tamburo militare (cui viene allentata la cordiera d’acciaio per impedire le vibrazioni sulla pelle e sortirne effetti lugubri e cupi) e da colpi profondi di grancassa, viene interrotta da improvvisi squilli di tromba.

La processione vera e propria delle statue oggetto di culto è poi preceduta e seguita dalla banda di Molfetta, che l’accompagna per tutto il tragitto cittadino secondo un preciso cerimoniale musicale, che si tramanda da anni. Le partiture e le singole parti di queste marce funebri del Venerdì santo molfettese sono conservate presso le Arciconfraternite della Morte e di S. Stefano, che ne dispongono solo in occasione delle rispettive processioni-spettacolo. (P. Moliterni, La Processione del Venerdì Santo a Molfetta, in Viaggio in Provincia.)

To attend this event, you should be ready to spend a sleepless night, since traditionally on Thursday night you should visit an odd number of altars of repose – called sepolcri –, set up in the old town churches, have a frugal meal of tuna, capers and anchovies and wait until 3 in the morning when the statues of Misteri (Mysteries), 16^th-century Neapolitan school wooden images, leave the church of Santo Stefano and are taken in procession through Molfetta streets.

Following the procession, you may appreciate the old town with its colored port, in whose waters the Cathedral of San Corrado is reflected.

The next stop of this itinerary is Bari, where the most impressive Easter event is the Processione dei Misteri (Procession of the Mysteries) on Good Friday. The beauty of its statues, Neapolitan or Venetian school wooden sculptures or dressed puppets dating back to 17^th and 18^th centuries, makes it stand out.

The scenic organization of the ceremony is rich and consistent as told by Nicola Cortone, an expert of popular art and local history:

La processione si distingue per le preziose vesti e gli ornamenti, la nobiltà dell’apparato dei portatori (rigorosamente vestiti di nero e guanti bianchi), la melodia delle musiche di bande e i pittoreschi inserti nel corteo di fanciulli e fanciulle, rispettivamente vestiti da guerrieri romani (Costantino) e Sant’Elena, con riferimento al rinvenimento della Croce da parte della imperatrice madre. La presenza di Sant’Elena dona una impronta bizantina alla processione, forse in origine riservata soltanto alla croce.

Gli altri personaggi, via via aggiunti nel corso del tempo, appartengono da un lato al teatro medievale e dall’altro ad una sorta di pellegrinaggio itinerante al Santo Sepolcro.

Attraverso i Misteri in pratica si ripercorrono le stazioni della “Via Crucis” venerate dal pellegrino […]. (N. Cortone, Passione per una settimana, in Bari Vecchia. Percorsi e segni della storia.)

Another distinctive feature connotes Bari procession on Good Friday, making it unique, namely the traditional rivalry between two confraternities that long paraded at the same time, each with its own statues, producing an odd duplication effect as well as causing disputes and brawls over the right of way.

In the 18^th century the Processione dei Misteri (Procession of the Mysteries) was organized by the confraternity “Maria Santissima Della Purificazione” and by the Franciscan Reformanti that let their statues exit the church of Vallisa. However, there was a similar procession in town on Good Friday: it started from the church of San Pietro delle Fosse, near the port, and was arranged by Friars Minor Observants. When the religious order was suppressed in 1809, the confraternity’s statues were moved to the church of San Gregorio, belonging to the Basilica di San Nicola. The two processions continued to compete and, when the parades crossed, they caused such disorder that the Archbishop had to intervene and in 1852 established that the Misteri (Mysteries) of Vallisa would have been taken in procession in even years, whereas the Misteri of San Gregorio in odd years. This archbishop’s order is still effective. Cortone writes:

La processione dei Misteri baresi, oltre che storica, diventa pittoresca e polare nella duplicazione della serie delle statue. (appartenenti alle due gloriose confraternite già citate), che dopo un lungo periodo di conflitti e tensioni sull’ordine delle precedenze, attualmente “escono” ad anni alternati dalle rispettive chiese […].

Ad esse è stato affibbiato dal popolino una duplice denominazione di chiangeaminue (“piagnoni”, quelli della Vallisa) e venduluse (“ventosi”, quelli di S. Gregorio), capaci cioè di sollevare vento o scrosci di pioggia in occasione della loro uscita. (N. Cortone, Passione per una settimana, in Bari Vecchia. Percorsi e segni della storia.)

While a sleepless night was required to take part in Molfetta procession, the traveler should be in shape to follow Bari procession, since it is the longest in Puglia, together with the one in Taranto. The statues cover various parts of the city, from the old town to Libertà district, behind the promenade, for fifteen hours.

Many scholars, anthropologists and historians have focused on the Holy Week processions: one of the best known in the region is definitely the «solenne e notturna» procession of the incappucciati (hooded figures) in Taranto, the next stop of the Passion itinerary. We deemed right and proper that a writer from Taranto should be our guide, the young intellectual Alessandro Leogrande, dead prematurely. He devoted a chapter of his report on Taranto, Dalle Macerie. Cronache sul fronte meridionale, to the Processione dei Misteri (Procession of the Mysteries). Hence, his words can lead us to the town alleys while the procession parades.

Leogrande describes it as follows:

Una decina di statue raffiguranti i momenti della Passione dondolano nella notte sorrette da uomini. Sono statue scolpite nel legno secoli addietro, i loro colori sono accesi, i loro volti rotondi, sofferenti. […]

Tra l’una e l’altra ci sono le coppie di Perdoni, cioè coppie di confratelli incappucciati che precedono a piedi scalzi sull’asfalto con la stessa lentezza con cui avanzano i gruppi che sorreggono le statue. Sembrano danzare. Ondeggiano con movimenti appena percettibili, da sinistra a destra, da destra a sinistra, sospingendosi ogni volta di qualche centimetro in avanti. Il verbo preciso è nazzicare, la loro camminata si chiama nazzicata.

In fondo, la banda musicale suona marce funebri che paiono una lunga nenia, mentre ai lati della strada un carnaio umano variamente assortito piange, ride, prega, scatta foto, osserva attentamente, sfiora sensualmente il corteo che si snoda per le strade della città.

È la Processione dei Misteri di Taranto. Esce ogni anno dalla chiesa del Carmine nel primo pomeriggio del Venerdì Santo e vi farà ritorno solo nella tarda mattinata del giorno successivo. Insieme alla processione gemella, quella dell’Addolorata, che esce il giovedì notte dal portone di San Domenico e vi fa ritorno il venerdì all’ora di pranzo, costituisce un pezzo di Sud barocco, sopravvissuto allo scorrere dei secoli e conficcato nella nostra modernità. […]

[…] tra le due Processioni c’è un’enorme differenza: quella dell’Addolorata si snoda tra i vicoli della città vecchia e approda nella città moderna solo per poche centinaia di metri;

mentre quella dei Misteri, benché sia nata nella medesima isola, si è poi spostata interamente nella città nuova.

Se nella prima la coincidenza tra luogo e rito appare perfetta, nella seconda lo stridore è molto forte. Si fa evidente soprattutto nelle prime ore, quando accanto alla Processione dei Misteri c’è la Diretta Televisiva della Processione dei Misteri, e c’è talmente tanta gente in strada che il percorso è transennato. Quando le telecamere si spengono, la gente si dirada e la gran parte dei tarantini va a dormire dopo aver sgranocchiato lupini o panzerotti con la mozzarella e il pomodoro, a “fare” la processione rimangono solo i Perdoni, i loro confratelli, pochi famigliari e qualche fedele con un cero acceso in mano.

[…] Un senso di morte e disperazione sembra salire dalle viscere della città. […] Il passato rimosso della città sgorga fuori all’improvviso, e con esso i suoi fantasmi, le sue inquietudini, la richiesta ancestrale di una grazia o di un miracolo, mentre in lontananza le ciminiere dell’Ilva illuminano la notte e le onde del mare rimescolano l’acqua nel golfo. (A. Leogrande, Dalle Macerie. Cronache dal fronte meridionale)

Taranto, Processione dei Misteri (Procession of the Mysteries), Ecce Homo

These events, which attract the crowds to Apulian town for days, are not free from contradictions: the original religious and educational value on which the shows – demanded by the post-Tridentine ecclesiastical hierarchy – were grounded, has now reduced. While some believers consider Easter processions as a key moment in their religious sensibility, many people now perceive them as a custom event, an opportunity to eat typical food or merely to attend a show neglecting its deep meaning. The anthropologist Emanuela Angiuli writes:

I visi delle statue scomposti dal dolore, i tratti disperati delle Vergini Desolate, la vivezza delle carni piegate ed illividite delle figure del Cristo, non sono semplici prodotti di abilità artistiche, ma referenti puntuali, segni di un’apocalisse precipita nella storia culturalmente controllata, nella quale gli “umili” entrano ed escono indossando gli abiti della penitenza, con la testa coperta di spine, le spalle schiacciate dal peso delle croci, in una sequenza di quadri in cui i protagonisti vivono la morte della propria condizione di sfruttati e subalterni. (E. Angiuli, La Pasqua, in Viaggio in provincia)

The discordant ambiguity of these events highlighted by Alessandro Leogrande in the Processione dei Misteri description takes a more dramatic tone in another book he wrote, published in 2011, Il Naufragio, which is about the tragedy of the ship Kater i Rades, full of migrants, that sank in the Strait of Otranto just on Good Friday night, a deadly Friday, while the Procession of the Mysteries paraded in Taranto:

La folla segue la processione dei Misteri, […]. Stipato tra la folla il Capitano Fusco si ritrova a fissare la statua chiamata “Ecce Homo”: un Cristo triste con la corona di spine posta sulla testa insanguinata e una pezza rossa intorno al corpo nudo. Osserva i suoi occhi. Guardano verso il basso. Più che di dolore sono carichi di stupore. Quell’uomo, scolpito nel legno tre o quattro secoli prima, non sta provando compassione per il mondo, ma stupore. Una profonda meraviglia, velata di tristezza, per la violenza, il non senso, l’indifferenza, l’ignavia, l’impossibilità di raddrizzare le cose. Quel Cristo dai lineamenti popolari sembra un innocente piombato improvvisamente in mezzo a una mattanza. Lo dicono i suoi occhi. Pensa e ripensa questa idea che gli è balenata in testa: un agnello in mezzo alla mattanza. Ma poi si distrae, è infastidito dai flash, dalle urla, dalle risate di un uomo grasso con in mano un pezzo di focaccia al pomodoro che gronda olio da tutte le parti.

Questa processione non ha niente di religioso, pensa. È tutto fuorché un evento religioso. È fatta di urla, non di silenzio. Di sovraesposizione, non di riflessione. Così si allontana e si dirige verso la macchina… (A. Leogrande, Il Naufragio)

Let’s leave Puglia, with its processions and rituals and continue the Passion Itinerary in Greece, in the Ionian Islands, to take part in the celebration of Orthodox Easter. If the traveler is lucky, the dates will not overlap. In fact, the Orthodox kalendar is different from the Catholic one. Hence, Easter is celebrated in Greece after the Latin festivities. Determining the date of Easter day was one of the main worries for Early Middle Ages ecclesiastical intellectuals, considering that complex secular calendars, called tabulae paschales, were elaborated in order to facilitate the determination of Easter day.

The difference between the Catholic and Orthodox dates lies in the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in the West, whereas in the Orthodox context the Julian calendar remained effective.

Easter is definitely the most important feast day of the year in Greek religion, in which Byzantine mysticism combines with purely insular folklore. In particular, Corfu island is famous for the events that enliven every village, making this period of the year one of the best moments for the town secret discovery, provided that you like confusion.

The great Sicilian writer and anthropologist, Giuseppe Pitrè, one of the leading folklore experts, has devoted a paragraph of his monumental book Archivio per lo studio delle tradizioni popolari, published in 1899, to Corfu Easter. The paragraph title is Usi pasquali nell’isola di Corfù, and the feast is described as follows:

La più graziosa delle città elleniche è senza dubbio Corfù. Tra gli usi pasquali tuttora in vigore i più caratteristici sono i seguenti: al momento di sciogliere le campane il Sabato Santo, si gettano dalle finestre gli utensili rotti conservati in casa durante l’anno, cosicché per qualche minuto è pericoloso trovarsi fuori di casa. Vetri, stoviglie volano per l’aria e con fracasso ingombrano il suolo. Quei buoni isolani dicono di cacciare tutta quella robaccia poco gradita dietro a Giuda in segno di disprezzo.

Altra usanza è quella degli spari. Questa dura dal mezzogiorno del Sabato Santo a quello della Domenica di Pasqua. È un bombardamento non interrotto.

Rivoltelle, vecchi fucili e pistole, mortai, tutto viene posto in opera.

Caratteristica quanto mai la processione nel Castello alla mezzanotte del Sabato Santo. La ricchezza degli apparati, l’intervento della truppa e delle autorità, l’ora e le fiaccolate multicolori, danno alla funzione un’aria affatto speciale. Tipica e commovente pei sensi che nasconde la veglia che si fa con l’agnellino la notte del Sabato santo. Al mattino della Domenica di Pasqua ogni casa sgozza sul limitare il suo agnellino. Il sangue scorre per le vie, e col sangue stesso ancora caldo si disegnano croci sugli usci e sulle pareti. (G. Pitrè, Archivio per lo studio delle tradizioni popolari.)

Corfu, Saint Spyridon procession on Palm Sunday

During our stop in Corfu we may discover what has changed and how enduring certain traditions are, more than one century after the Sicilian writer’s study.

The ritual celebrations start on Saturday preceding Palm Sunday. This day is celebrated in memory of the miracle that restored Lazarus of Bethany to life, with traditional songs performed by choirs coming from all island’s villages. The girls, wearing traditional clothes, go round the houses and chant songs called kalanda of Lazarus. On this occasion, people eat typical biscuits called koulorakia or Lazzarakia, since their shape recalls that of Lazarus’ body wrapped up in the shroud.

On Palm Sunday, in a town decorated in red, as purple cloths are hung on every balcony, the relics of the patron saint, Saint Spyridon, are taken in procession, followed by a joyful crowd of believers and the eighteen Philharmonic Orchestras of the island. This habit has recurred every year since 1629 when, according to hagiographic legend, Agios Spyridon freed the island from the terrible plague. Besides being an extremely fascinating event, which ends with music concerts in the old town, it is also one of the only four circumstances in which it is possible to see the saint’s relics through Corfu alleys. The English writer Lawrence Durrell, genuinely fond of the island, where he lived for several years, wrote that Saint Spyridon and Corfu nearly identify with each other, since they are closely linked: “The island is really the Saint: and the Saint is the island”. The writer describes this procession as follows:

The saint lies quite composed in his casket. He is a mummy, a small dried-up anatomy, whose tiny feet (clad in embroidered slippers) protrude from a vent at the bottom of his sarcophagus. […]

Four times a year is the Saint’s casket borne on triumphal procession round the town; while on Christmas Eve and at Easter he is placed on a throne in the church and accessible to all comers. But the processions are something more than empty form. From early morning the streets are crowded with the gay scarves and headchiefs of peasants from outlying districts who have come in to attend the service; every square is alive with hucksters’ stalls selling nuts, ginger-beer, sweetmeats, carpet-strips, buttons, lemonade, penholders, bootlaces, toothpicks, lucky charms, ikons, wood carving, candles, soap and religious objects.[…].

The procession is led by the religious novices clad in blue cassocks and carrying gilt Venetian lanterns on long poles; they are followed by banners, heavy and tasselled, and rows of candles crowned with gold and trailing streamers. The huge pieces of wax are carried in a leather baldric – slung, as it were, at the hip. After them comes the town band – or rather the two municipal bands, bellowing and blasting, with brave brass helmets of a fire-brigade pattern, glittering with white plumes. Now troops in open order follow, backed by the first rows of priest in their stove pipe hats, each wearing a robe of unique colour and design – brocade of roses, maize, corn. grass-green, kingcup-yellow. It is like a flower bed moving. At last the archbishop appears in all is pomp, and since he is the signal for the Saint to appear, all hands begin to make the sign of the cross and all lips lo move in prayer. The Saint is borne by six sailors under an old canopy of crimson and gold, supported by six silver poles and flanked by six priests. He is carried in a sort of sedan-chair, and through the screen his face appears to be more than ever remote, determined, and misanthropic. (L. Durrell, Propero’s Cell. A guide to the landscape and manners of the island of Corfu)

As in Italy, the most heartfelt day in the Holy Week is Friday, the Passion day, also called Epitaph Friday, namely the day of Sepolcri. All over the island, every church takes its own Epitaph in procession, in a flower-adorned canopy. The faithful follow their parish Epitaph emulating the rhythm of the sad funeral marches played by music bands.

On the following day, Holy Saturday, the earthquake after Jesus’ death – as told in the Gospels – is performed in the church of Kyra Panagia Faneromeni, in Agiou Spyridonos square, on early morning; the faithful beat the pews creating such a noise that the church seems to shake.

Later, the patron saint – Spyridon – parades through Corfu streets again with his sepulcher, in memory of the ban imposed by the Venetians on taking Epitaphs in procession on Good Friday.

The most colorful and typical time of Orthodox Easter in the island is 11 in the morning, namely the start of the show in which botides are smashed.

Big terracotta vases, painted red, are thrown in the street from the old town balconies, and smash into a thousand pieces. The origin of this custom, linked by Giuseppe Pitrè to the popular will to drive Jude away, according to other scholars recalls the Venetian tradition of throwing old objects from the windows at New Year.

At late night, just before midnight, the Resurrection is finally celebrated and the island sky is lit up with fireworks. The faithful sing joyful songs, following the music played by philharmonic bands, and wish each other a Happy Easter using the traditional formula Χριστός ανέστη (Jesus has risen).

In the villages the custom of sacrificing the Easter lamb and marking the house doors with its blood is still alive. This tradition probably recalls the period when, as Franco Cardini writes, “in un ormai lontano plenilunio di primavera, […] il sangue dell’agnello sacrificato protesse le case degli Ebrei dal passaggio dell’Angelo”. The Book of Exodus narrates that, before Israelites’ deliverance from slavery in Egypt, an angel sent by God would have hit every Egyptian firstborn and saved Israelites, who marked their doors with the blood of a sacrificed lamb, as ordered by Moses complying with God’s will: “[…] quand’io vedrò il sangue, passerò oltre, e non vi sarà piaga su di voi per distruggervi, quando colpirò il paese d’Egitto”. The lamb, a victim in the Exodus and king in the Apocalypse, is still one of the most powerful Catholic and Orthodox symbols of Easter. Resurrection Sunday is the day of food, when Corfu people, after Lent fast, enjoy rich meals of lamb and goat meat.

If Easter festivities take solemn and spectacular tones in Corfu, in the other Ionian Islands the traveler may have a more intimate and less social experience. Hence, we have chosen Lefkada as the last stop of our itinerary. With its white cliffs, famous for the poet Sappho’s suicide on account of her love, the island, which is still outside mass tourism routes, is a place where life has a slow and natural pace and Easter is the most important event of the year. The rituals take place all over the Holy Week, when the villages are adorned, the houses are painted white and the streets are cleaned. Godfathers and godmothers give their godchildren new and white clothes, along with an Easter candle. On Holy Thursday women paint the eggs red and on Good Friday the parade of Epitaphs takes place. On Saturday at midnight the faithful’s candles are lit up and a cross is drawn on the house doors by their smoke, while the bells ring and the fireworks explode in the sky with their colors. On Sunday the Agàpi ceremony takes place: the Greek word refers either to love in its divine and Platonic dimension or to holy libations. In fact, after reading the Gospel in twelve different languages, an extremely rich meal of roasted lamb meat and honey cakes is enjoyed.

The traveler who has taken this itinerary may symbolically join the Easter banquet. After going through the Passion days, with dramatic ritual processions, Sacre Rappresentazioni, and litanies, time for joy and rebirth as well as our time for return has come. Our itinerary, which ends here, has led us to visit wonderful places and also to discover old Mediterranean traditions related to our religion Gospel events and to man’s nature: over millennia men, with their own contradictions, have turned their fears and sufferings into rites and celebrated their divinities and great nature’s cycles.