The cathedral is laid out like a basilica, with a two-storey Romanesque façade that enhances the height and width of the nave and the two aisles. A twenty-four-ray rose window hangs over the central entrance and the second storey of the nave, livening up the façade. Three entrances, one for the nave and two for the aisles: the main one is incomplete while the side ones, which are smaller, are decorated with high-relief putti and sculptures of Jesus Christ. The portal of the southern façade also has, on the pediment, a bas-relief of the Virgin and Child with the sculpted figures of Saint Peter and Saint Paul above it.
Inside, the baroque ceiling is made of carved and gilded wood, while several coats of arms of bishops and members of the Orsini family hang above the triumphal arch. The presbytery is separated from the nave by a polychrome-marble balustrade, with its brass gate, commissioned in the XVII century by the bishop of Gravina and cardinal Domenico Orsini.
In the area below the cathedral, there is the Church of the Holy Cross, also known as “soccorpo della Cattedrale”, with one nave and two aisles, with several graves dating from the XVI to the XIX century.
A Brief History:
It was built in the XI century on the resolve of the Norman Humphrey de Hauteveille, at the back of his castle. Romanesque in style, according to the architectural principles of the time, its length was twice its width. The bell tower was in the centre of the building which had one nave and two aisles. Two terrible events upset the whole city and had disastrous consequences on this group of monuments: the fire of 1447 and the earthquake of 1456. It was rebuilt about thirty years later under the bishopric of Mgr. D’Aquino (1482-1508).
Main Works:
A painting by Bardinello, dated 1779, portraying the “Sacred Family”; the temple-shaped marble ciborium commissioned in 1663 to Cosimo Fanzago. On the opposing aisle, an altar with a seventeenth-century wooden Crucifix; next to it, the “Presentation of Mary to the Temple”, a 1538 high-relief. This is followed by “The Pentecost” by local artist Francesco Santulli, 1705. On the last altar, the polychrome statue of Saint Michael by sculptor Stefano da Putignano. The vestry houses a choir in solid walnut wood made in 1561, finely carved even inside the coffers and doors.
Style:
With one nave and two aisles, the nave larger and separated from the choir by a large archivolt resting on two pillars with ancient capitals, with a wall on top. Five pillars with composite capitals hold, at the two sides of the nave, the Roman arches with crescent-shaped archivolts. On the arcades, long architrave cornices with brackets decorated on the mould and a festoon-decorated frieze; the church is covered by a plain ceiling in the nave and by vaults in the aisles. Double lancet windows with small pillars in the middle open up above the cornices.
Sources: Redazione e PIS 13 Habitat Rupestre Updated on: 03/09/2010
Project created in collaboration with InnovaPuglia.
Regione Puglia
Regione Puglia