Ostuni: the Cathedral

1) the main portal 2) the lunette

The cathedral is dedicated to Assunta, whose festivity is celebratesd on the 15th of August. In the lunette of the main portal can be seen the bas-relief of the virgin in throne with the bishop Arpone at her feet. Generally in the temple is approached from the left portal dedicated to San Biagio, city patron, carved in a lunette relief where holds the city of Ostuni and the keys of this one. Crossed the threshold there’s to feel cold and overwhelmed noticing how nothing medieval is survived after the restoring and restructuring works executed during the centuries. One of these was made in 1891, under the presulato of Palmieri archbishop while the vicar of the diocese of Ostuni was monsignor Matone, the true responsible of the mad restorations and the exaggerated tampering suffered by the church. In the sixties of our century the last restoration has been had, and it has been attempted to carry out what was still remained under the wide layer of putties that still today covers the old structures. The painful image offered by the Romanesque capitals horribly crippled has carried to put definitively a pitiful veil

on the attempt to bring out the rest of the ancient cathedral. The inside of the temple is a Latin cross and two colonnades separate the central ship center from the lateral ones. The ceiling was composed by truss, before the last work that has carried to the elimination of the beams; enormous burlaps representing scenes of Christ life and the martyrdom of Sant' Oronzo and saint Biagio have been placed upon		the ceiling in XVIII century. The altars are altogether eleven and, turning in a clockwise direction, that is to say from left to right, we find the baptismal source, the chapel dedicated to Sacro Cuore, the one of San Gaetano with one burlap painted by Vaccaro, the big chapel of the Immacolata dated back to the end of the 1800's, sacristy, a burlap representing Sant'Oronzo
	1) - 2) the inside

and, on the background, the chapel of the Holy patrons of Ostuni (San Biagio, Sant' Agostino, Sant' Oronzo and Sant' Irene), the apse and the chorus on whose background finds the Assunta shovel , the chapel of Santa Maria della Santità, the fresco of Santa Caterina di Alessandria, once placed in the chapel of the Carducci noble family, the chapel of Santa Lucia (currently there is the organ), that once kept a precious representing shovel about the Saint


1) - 2) hanging Bows with zoomorphist images

and painted by Palma il Giovine, the big chapel of Santissimo Sacramento, the chapel of monsignor Bisanzio Filo bishop of Ostuni from1707 to 1720, the chapel of San Nicola and the one of Sant' Antonio from Padova. On the antifacade in a niche one is observed a great statue of the Christ dated back to the last years of the XV century and belonged to the chapel of the Martucci family.There are eight burlaps of great value guarded in vestry, painted in the Xvi-xvii century, and the silver objects,such as the statue of Sant' Oronzo realized in natural height in the 1794 by the engraver Baccaro of the city of Naples, on a commission made by a rich merchant of oils Pietro Sansone, and donated by the heirs to the Cathedral few years ago.

The Cathedral