Martina Franca

The elegant town rises on a gentle hill of southern Murgia and overlooks the Itria Valley. The traveler will be soon amazed by its Baroque and Rococo appearance, less abundant than Lecce style but with simple and elegant shapes.

The town origins date back to the 10^th century, when some refugees from Taranto escaping from the Saracens took refuge on Monte San Martino and established the first village there.

In the 14^th century, this original settlement was enlarged at the behest of Philip I, Prince of Taranto, who guaranteed exemptions and rights to those who would have decided to settle down. That is the origin of the name Martina Franca.

The town center is accessed through Piazza XX Settembre, where a monumental 18^th-century arch rises, decorated with an equestrian statue of Saint Martin, in memory of the legend that tells how this holy knight freed the city from Maramaldo’s troop attack. Once you cross the arch, you enter the old town. Here it is possible to admire the beautiful Palazzo Ducale, built in the Baroque style at the end of 17^th century at the behest of the noble family Caracciolo.

Going into the old town streets, you may reach the collegiate Church of San Martino, a spectacular Baroque church, built between 1747 and 1775 and located in Corso Vittorio Emanuele, a street lined with elegant buildings that have windows and carved balconies. The church façade is richly decorated and embellished with a large portal topped with a sculptural group that portrays the scene of Saint Martin and the poor in line with the theatrical and scenic 18^th-century style.

The interior has a Latin cross and a single-nave plan, and it is abundantly decorated: stuccoes, marble and precious materials contribute to make this church a Baroque jewel in Puglia.

Martina Franca, Piazza Plebiscito (photograph by Tango7174 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13754146)

The Cones of Trulli

Alberobello trulli (author: Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60159414)

The trulli of Alberobello have on top, in addition to a sculpted pinnacle, strange markings: they are symbols of different nature, some recall pagan and esoteric traditions, whereas others refer to Christian iconography. They are made using limewash directly on the chiancarelle^[1], i. e. the stones which made up the conical roof. These markings not only helped distinguish the families owning the trulli, but took on an apotropaic function: they were believed to ward off the evil eye and favor a good crop. The most common and easily recognizable symbols were the Jewish candelabrum, the symbol of Jesus as the Sun, and Maria’s pierced heart which refers to the Passion. Other pagan symbols that are commonly found on the trulli of Alberobello are the Taurus, Jupiter and Venus.

1. T.N.: Limestone slabs used in Apulian architecture, especially as covers for the conical roofs of trulli. ↑

Santa Maria delle Grazie

Sanctuary of Santa Maria delle Grazie, vintage photograph (author: William Henry Goodyear – Brooklyn Museum, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31383687)

Near the train station, in Via Madonna delle Grazie, the sanctuary and church of the same name stands out. It was commissioned by Bishop Vincenzo Giustiniani in the first half of the 17^th century.

The lower part of the ashlared façade continues until the upper register, creating a very singular three-tower castle, into which the three church portals open.

The upper part of the main façade is literally dominated by a very big crowned eagle with outstretched wings, topped with an episcopal miter. The façade of this church clearly reveals an ostentatious exhibition of the 17^th-century church power symbols in this part of Puglia.

Gravina

Gravina di Puglia, vintage photograph (CC BY-SA 3.0, https://it.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3694887)

This town of High Murgia in its name already reveals the particular characteristics of its landscape shape. The whole town rises on a deep ravine structured around several levels alternating rock churches, houses, stables, and sheds. Among the various rock churches, the Basilica di San Michele delle grotte is worth a visit: an area divided into five naves by large pillars. On the rocky walls, it is still possible to see the remains of 12^th and 13^th-century frescoes. In one of the spaces connected to the church it is possible to visit a charnel house, macabre storage of human remains, which a strong popular tradition considers as the bones of Gravina citizens, brutally murdered during one of the 10^th-century Saracen raids.

In Gravina the visitors can admire the precise reconstruction of San Vito crypt and its beautiful frescoes, including a Christ Pantokrator enthroned and a Virgin Enthroned, within the little known but rich Museum Pomarici-Santomasi. The museum is housed in the 17^th-century Pomarici Santomasi Foundation building, whose two floors also host the archaeological finds from Botromagno area, the Picture Gallery, the Library, the Historical Archive, and the reading rooms.

Contacts

Telephone: +39 080.325.10.21

Fax: +39 080.325.10.21

E-Mail: info@fondazionesantomasi.it

Via Museo n. 20 – 70024 Gravina in Puglia (Ba) – Italy

OPENING TIMES

Tuesday/Sunday: 9 a.m. -1 p.m. | 4 p.m.- 8 p.m.

Closed on Monday

The Rock Civilization in Puglia

Ravines in the province of Mottola- public domain-

Ravines, lame^[1], gorges, caves, crypts, and churches with frescoed rocky walls are the natural and artistic heritage protected in the Parco Regionale delle Gravine dell’Arco Ionico, a wide geographical area that includes many towns in the province of Taranto.

People have long thought that the caves of these ravines had been used during the Middle Ages only by hermits or Eastern monks who came to Puglia after the 8^th-century iconoclastic controversy. Actually, authoritative experts in various disciplines, from Geology to History, in particular starting from the hypotheses formulated by the historian Cosimo Damiano Fonseca, have shown that the rock churches or the so-called hermit crypts represented only one of the possible forms of living in a cave. Between the 10^th and the 15^th century, dwellings and entire hamlets were excavated from the sides of lame and ravines by local people who chose life in caves as a conscious alternative to urban life. Hence, the expression “rock civilization” was coined to define that singular way of life, which is different from but not inferior to life in towns and villages. In Puglia the habit to excavate from the soft limestone dates back to the Bronze Age, which many tombs found by the archaeologists belong to. Also during the classical period underground areas were still in use, showing that the attitude of living in a cave was deeply rooted in local people already before the birth of Christianity. Puglia boasts a very rich rupestrian heritage: we suggest the traveler visit Massafra and Mottola churches.

In particular, the Church of Candelora and the rupestrian complex attached to the Sanctuary of Madonna della Scala are worth noting.

The Church of Candelora looks onto the ravine of San Marco and is located within a private garden that may be reached following Via Canali. The Crypt has a basilica plan with three naves and, although collapse damaged the original entrance and part of the apse area, it keeps the false slopes and domes. The walls, along which various arches open, house very beautiful frescoes that date back to the 13^th and 14^th centuries. These paintings have both Greek and Latin inscriptions, showing the cultural variety of the region, which is a bridge between the Greek and Byzantine East and the Latin West. The fresco Vergine che conduce il Bambino is particularly evocative. Its iconography is very rare and seems to highlight the motherly tenderness of Maria, nearly walking outside the sacred space of the painting – her feet, before the floor lowered, touched the walking surface. She seems to give caring recommendations to her child, who brings an egg basket, interpreted in various ways. In Christian symbolism, the egg may refer to the Passion, as a metaphor of a sepulcher that creates life. The two smaller figures next to the Virgin represent the couple who commissioned the fresco.

Crypt of Candelora, the fresco Vergine che conduce il Bambino

Also the Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Scala, with its crypt, is worth visiting. Located on the outskirts of Massafra, along a deep and picturesque ravine, it can be reached through a spectacular Baroque style staircase.

Legend has it that in the place where the sanctuary lies today, two does were found venerating a Marian icon. The present shrine was built in the 18^th century on the original crypt, frequented since ancient times. The building, which today has the 18^th-century style and shape, houses a valuable 13^th-century fresco, which depicts a beautiful Madonna con Bambino deriving from the rock church of Buona Nuova, next to the Sanctuary and mostly damaged during the Baroque staircase construction. The close resemblance to another fresco dedicated to the Virgin in the crypt of the church next to the shrine would prove this.

Massafra, Madonna della Scala, Madonna con Bambino

Massafra, Madonna della Buona Nuova, Madonna con Bambino

1. T. N.: Depressions in the ground with gentle slopes, due to the karst processes in Puglia. ↑

The Marta Museum in Taranto

Via Cavour 10,

open daily 8.30 a.m.-7.30 p.m., last admission 7.00 p.m.

The National Archaeological Museum of Taranto, MArTA, is definitely one of the best museums in Italy. It was set up in 1887 and, since then, has been hosted in the former 18^th-century Convento dei Frati Alcantarini (Convent of the Alcantarini monks). Not much is left of the original building that develops around the cloister colonnaded perimeter.

The numerous finds, emerging from Taranto subsoil, were first arranged at the end of the 19^th century, then new layouts followed aimed at reorganizing its rich archeological heritage in a consistent way at museographical level.

Over the years, the museum has been temporarily closed to the public, dismantled and reassembled; after a long series of regulatory and restoration works, in December 2007, the new Museum of Taranto was inaugurated, officially renamed MArTA.

The ground floor hosts the rooms for temporary exhibitions, whereas on the upper floors the rich permanent collection is arranged.

The exhibition itinerary, closely linked to territorial references, is organized according to thematic areas connected to the various aspects of Taranto area life and history, within broad time periods.

The visitor may admire a lot of black- and red-figure Attic vases, decorated with mythological stories and may be fascinated by gold and semiprecious stone jewels, which are the result of local goldsmiths’ polished art and document this society’s splendor and wealth.

Head of a woman, 4^th century BC (Author: Maria – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20263809)

Gold earring, 4^th century BC (author: Maria – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20263809)

The Castello Aragonese of Taranto

The Castello Aragonese of Taranto, called Castel Sant’Angelo, is a very beautiful Renaissance castle, built on an old natural valley at the end of the small island where the old town stands. Its current appearance is that given during the Aragonese period. The castle was erected on the site of a previous defensive structure, whose oldest architectural stage is Byzantine. Thanks to 13^th-century archive documents, it is possible to recreate its Medieval appearance: a fortress with quadrangular towers designed for machicolation-based defense, i.e. the throwing of arrows or other material from the narrow embrasures opening along the bastions.

In the second half of the 15^th century, when technologies of warfare had completely transformed the way of fighting and the defense methods thanks to the wide use of artillery and guns, the Castle proved inadequate and so it was necessary to change its architectural features.

It seems now clear that the great architect Francesco di Giorgio Martini produced the designs of the new plan of Taranto’s castle. Its architecture is grounded on exact geometric and mathematical rules, which recall the Sienese architect’s purely Renaissance culture: four cylindrical fortified towers are connected by means of wide and elegant curtains that form a quadrilateral. Over the centuries, the Renaissance structure has been modified, adding new defensive structures and enlarging the moat area. Finally, the castle was further altered in the last century, to turn it into a prison and allow for the construction of the ponte girevole (swing bridge) that connects the new town to the old town of Taranto. Since 1887 it has been home to the Italian Navy, which is currently ensuring free daily guided tours inside the Castle.

Taranto, Castello Aragonese, (author: Livioandronico2013 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30324730)

Info: 0997753438  E-mail: infocastelloaragonese@libero.it

Pino Pascali Museum Foundation

The Pino Pascali Museum Foundation is located outside Polignano old town along a scenic route that overlooks the sea and faces the so-called Scoglio dell’eremita (rock of the hermit), in the bright areas of the restored municipal former slaughterhouse.

As well as temporary contemporary art exhibitions, the museum hosts a permanent collection by the brilliant and controversial artist Pino Pascali from Polignano. The artist, who died at the young age of thirty-three in 1968, had already become one of the most remarkable figures in the 1960s Roman artistic scene. He had joined the Arte Povera, interpreting it with playful and provocative tones in his eccentric installations. In his works, it is possible to perceive numerous echoes related to Puglia colors and landscapes: sea, land, fields, and animals, reinterpreted according to his own poetics, are his favorite subjects.

PINO PASCALI FOUNDATION
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART

VIA PARCO DEL LAURO 119
70044 POLIGNANO A MARE (BA)

TEL: +39 080 4249534 | +39 3332091920

WINTER OPENING TIMES
Open daily from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
and from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Closed Mondays;

SUMMER OPENING TIMES

(From 10 July to 2 September)

From Tuesday to Sunday: 11 a.m.- 1 p.m./ 3 p.m.-10 p.m.

Closed Mondays

The ticket office closes half an hour before the museum. Tickets cost 5 euros or less if reductions apply. Free admission on the first Sunday of every month.

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^th century, 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

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.

The Cathedral Of Bari

Bari, Cathedral of San Sabino (Author: Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61448663)

The Cathedral of Bari, dedicated to Saint Sabinus and the Virgin Hodegetria, that is “she who points the way”, seems to hardly emerge from the noisy alleys of the old town, almost hidden in its heart and by the more famous and venerated Basilica di San Nicola. It is the bell tower – the only one that stands out among the low roofs of the village and has remained a distinctive point of reference in the urban skyline for centuries – that makes the church imposing.

Internally and on the tripartite white façade it is possible to read its history, which began in ancient times in the succorpo^[1], adorned with beautiful Early Christian mosaics, and unfolds over the centuries until the Baroque additions, visible in the crypt and the statues with their emphasized theatricality, that enrich the main portal.

The building took on its current appearance between 1170 and 1178, when it was completely rebuilt, after having been razed to the ground by William I, called the Wicked, following the uprising of Bari people against the new Norman lords.

The façade is divided into three sections by pilaster strips, thus externally reflecting the inner division of the naves. The tops of the slopes have hanging arches that lie on shelves carved with snakes and animals, directly taken from the rich and creative Medieval bestiary.

A large rose window, decorated with statues of monsters, dragons, snakes and grotesque figures, dominates the upper register in line with the main portal. The apse area is not externally visible thanks to a rear façade that has a wonderful large window, considered as one the masterpieces of 12^th-century Romanesque sculpture. This wide scalloped opening, framed by a baldachin supported by hanging columns, is abundantly carved with eastern plant and animal motifs, including in particular a mysterious harpy.

Bari, Cathedral, rear façade, apse window.

Bari, Cathedral, rear façade, a detail of the apse window

The creative sculptural external Romanesque decoration is in contrast with the austere and mystical inner atmosphere, where the silence of the deep naves is enlivened only by the imposing effect created by the arcades, in counterpoint to the elegant three-lancet windows of the upper matronea.

Bari, Cathedral of San Sabino, interior. (Author: Porcullus Marek Postawka – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3526917)

The oldest core of the church is located five meters below the Cathedral level and dates back to the 6^th century. It is an Early Christian basilica that has maintained its ancient charm nearly intact. The area, formerly divided into three naves, now keeps the foundations of the original columns and a mosaic pavement ornate with geometric motifs and plant and animal elements. It is still possible to read an inscription that mentions a man named Timothy who paid for the floor mosaic decoration to honor a vow.

The crypt hosts the icon of the Virgin Hodegetria, known also as Madonna of Constantinople, an object of deep devotion. Tradition has it that the board came to Bari from Constantinople in the 8^th century, when during iconoclasm the Eastern Roman Emperor had ordered to destroy all the icons. Actually, it is a 16^th-century board that reproduces the Byzantine iconographic type of the Virgin enthroned who points to the Child thus showing the way to heaven, that is Christ.

Over the 18th century, the board was changed, and according to the style and aesthetics of that period, it was protected and covered with a sumptuous silver riza.

Icon of the Virgin Hodegetria

(Author: Sailko – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58901057)

1. T. N.: The vast hypogeum church underneath the Cathedral. ↑