The sacred building was built on an area made by the family Palmers among 1656 and 1657 available, to expenses of the ostunesis that wanted in such way to thank the Saint, compatrono of the city together to St. Biagio, to have saved with its intercession both Ostuni and the rest of the Salento from the terrible contagion of the plague exploded in Naples and in different other centers of the ancient kingdom in that timecourse. The sanctuary rises among the pleasant hills ostunesi on the "mountain" Morrone, so says for the presence of an ancient "specchia", heap of stones, situated in the proximities, visible to great distance from who, crossing the government 16, it turns the look to the southern Murges that slowly degrade toward the lowland salentina. Already in the XVI century in the same places a more ancient chiesetta is attested devoted to the Saint, erect above a small natural hollow inside which St. Oronzo would be sheltered, patrician leccese, to escape the persecution of the Christians in the first century of the vulgar era. The tradition narrates various episodes of the solitary life of the saint evangelist of the Salento concealed among the necks ostunesi, and among the most memorable prodigious events there is that of the Fountain miraculous, situated to few meters from the church, to which he comes after having crossed the triumphal arc of the XVIII century, situated to the left of the temple, and after having climbed the splendid Baroque stairway that finishes in front of the sacred place. From such Fountain for a long time faith and popular tradition have believed that it gushed out to intermittence a clear water, also during horrid summer seasons, for miracle of St. Oronzo that, thirsty, you/he/she would have struck the rock with a baton, giving origin to the phenomenon. The Saint is revered from more than three centuries on the Morrone mountain not only from the Ostunesis but from its devotees generally, which both in the times passed and today's they keep on frequenting in big number and in every period of the year these places and to ask intercession and graces to the saint for the most disparate motives and to bathe himself/herself/themselves to the Fountain. The water of the Fountain, in fact, a sure remedy was considered against the evil of every kind and you/they was organized frequent pilgrimages of devotees to the sanctuary attainable once crossing the street of Agnano. Of the great popular devotion toward St. Oronzo stays the testimony offered by the Ride of the Devotees that inevitably accompanies the procession of August 26 since the construction of the sanctuary. To attend to the Sanctuary and to administer its good that more and more frequently through tied up pii they were recorded, they were in the second halves Six hundred the oblatis of the College of St. Carlo Borromeo, risen in Ostuni in 1664, whose residence was situated behind the parish church of the Spirit Saint used for the sacred functions by the fathers of the college. Inside the church to which the college was today still attached the most ancient altar it exists devoted to St. Oronzo whose simulacro in wood guarded in the niche shows him/it suit with the suit of the oblatis.
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1) Summit of the Morrone mountain - 2) View from the Fountain |
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1) - 2) The Sanctuarie |
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1) The entry of the sanctuary - 2) The monument with the statue of St. Oronzo (1836) |
In this church for a long timecourse the religious functions and the undena developed him in honor of St. Oronzo during the month of August, at least up to when, abolished the college of St. Carlo, the altar of the holy patrons was not realized and protecting in the Cathedral. To the beginnings of the Seven hundred one the sanctuary passed under the custody and direction of the neocostituito diocesan seminar to which will belong up to the XIX century. For the custody and for the celebrations eucaristiche provvederanno of time in time the priests named by the Chapter of the cathedral The Sanctuary of country it is composed of the church and of the attached abode of the oblatis, constituent the seventeenth-century bodies of factory to which for wish of the arcivesco Tommaso Valeri in the years Winds it was assistant the summer residence of the diocesan seminar. Inside the church the part ipogea is found with relative altar pitreo and a fresco of the XVI century and the impending area with cars of altar realized to expenses of the family Benefit in 1774 of it. To the outside other devotional signs are gathered represented by the arc of triumph and by the splendid stairway that conducts to the Fountain, made to build from the notary Felice Giovi of it in 1747 for his/her particular devotion. More aloft of the Fountain and of the church, recently restored on the occasion of the year giubilare, we find the monument in kind stone on which it polls a statue of St. Oronzo, probable work of Orazio Greco, Giuseppe's child, craftsman of the monumental steeple in plaza of the Liberties, erect in 1836 to want of Paolo Tanzarella to memory of the terrible epidemic of cholera that had struck Ostuni in 1831. Not too far the sanctuary the cippo of the plague risalente finds again him to 1691, also says Cross of St. Oronzo; the monument was erect to memory of another miracle operated by the saint that once more it implored the danger of the contagion of the plague. In that year, in fact, because of the contagion they lost the life numerous city of Cisternino, Fasano and Monopoli. Inside the Sanctuary we have the car of the most greater altar risalente to the second halves the XVIII century, when you/they were referred you furnish him sacred, and an icon where up to few years ago the cloth of St. Oronzo was situated (currently replaced by a big photo), probably commissioned by the dukes Zevallos to Giandomenico Caroppo them artist of trust and currently situated in Cathedral next to the door of entry of the sacristy. The scratch turns in stone of the church it shows in the fanlights a series of painted attestanti the miracles of St. Oronzo for its devotees, expression of an ingenue and sincere popular devotion. An ancient statue in cartapesta very revered raffigurante the Saint in pontifical suits and another small reproduction in stone they complete the ornamental apparatus of the church whose architectural lines postpone to the Baroque language introduced in the city with the construction of the church of the Spirit Saint risalente to the first decades of Six hundred.
