THE SANCTUARY OF ST. BIAGIO |
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Historical advising by the Prof. Luigi Greco |
| Among the ravines of the Murges ostunesi, to few kilometers from the inhabited area, along the road he/she dictates some Necks, the ancient rocky church of S. is found Biagio, today in advanced state of I degrade, destination every year of pilgrimage from the devotees that on February 3, for devotion, they go him to make free to the saint patron of the city of Ostuni. The origins of the church, laura cenobitica basiliana, and of the modest adjacent housing complex, center of the oblato (or custodian) up to the beginnings of our century, situated in front of the church, they go up again to the XII century and different parchments they are him/it to attest in incontestable way. The first ones to live in the low medioevo the small installation of St. Biagios in Rialbo were some oblatis basiliani that from the bishops of Ostuni they got the surrounding grounds, the animals and the economic support to undertake their activities. The city of Ostuni, that recognizes in St. Biagio the first patron of the city and that he/she reveres for a long time it immemorial, for a long time you/he/she has contributed to the expenses related to the maintenance of the monumental complex and to handle the maintenance of the oblatis employed to the custody of the church. In the notarial protocols, in the papers of the Public Records in Naples concernenti the ancient accounts town rhesuses to the Regal Chamber of the Summary one, in the Historical file of the Administration of Ostuni, numerous documents are found that attest the financial appointments and the continuous hurries of the administrators of the past for the best maintenance in the sanctuary of St. Biagio. The romitorio is formed from a modest chiesetta in Romanesque style set to a rocky hollow (part ipogea) where up to few years ago traces of frescos were perceived tall medieval referable to the presence of the monks basiliani. The historical testimonies on the matter find again him in the works of various local researchers among which Ludovico Pepe, Cosimo De Giorgi, Giovanni Tarantini and others. Inside the church the altar is admired in kind stone in Baroque style with the statue of St. Biagio, the sculptor's work ostunese Joseph Greco to which was commissioned by the arcidiacono Charles Petraroli in 1780 around; to the outside instead modest bodies of factory are found among which a situated room on the left side of the church and in front of the sacred building the ancient abode of the oblato, formed currently only from two survivors rooms with to the outside two wells dug in the rock and fed from a well visible aqueduct to the outside along the ridge of the band pedemontana because all realized in surface among the rocks. The courtyard, situated to the center of the various environments now described, it is today still protected from wall windbreak. The sanctuary of St. Biagio constitutes one of the most interesting examples of monastic installation along the whole area of the Murges Meridionali and testifies some influence of the Byzantine east on Puglia along the centuries that go from the IX to the XI. To the outside of the monastic installation an ample zone of uncontaminated Mediterranean stain is found with medieval other forms of installation represented from ancient "aquariums" along the tratturis of access that he/she anchors they preserve the traditional forms engraved by their craftsmen. Numerous muretti to dry of remote epoch they are equally visible in different points and the landscape they make even more suggestive surrounding party, besides, from one it burdens of enormous dimensions considered by the speleologists the greatest existing underground hollow in Puglia. From the sanctuary the plain one is observed some ulivetis that it entirely covers the whole inclusive area between Ostuni and the sea. Different farms, some you remember in medieval epoch, they find again him both on the hilly area is in the plain surrounding and they form an unicum of exceptional landscape and natural interest. | |
| 1) the sanctuary set in the rock - 2) The prospectus | ||
| 1) The statue of St. Biagio in the chapel | ||
| 1) Foreshortenings of the inside of the sanctuary |
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