Altamura Cathedral

About

Altamura Cathedral, the Duomo di Altamura, properly the Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, stands in the old hill town of Altamura, in the Metropolitan City of Bari in southern Italy's Apulia region. Dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it is one of the four 'palatine' churches of Apulia, built directly under imperial patronage rather than the ordinary jurisdiction of a local bishop.

The cathedral was raised between 1232 and 1254 by the will of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. In 1248, at his urging, Pope Innocent IV declared Altamura exempt from the bishop of Bari, granting the church its distinctive palatine status. Since 1986 it has served as the seat of the Bishop of Altamura-Gravina-Acquaviva delle Fonti.

The building has been remade several times. The cathedral collapsed on 29 January 1316 and was rebuilt with the help of masons from nearby Bitonto, as a Latin inscription on the so-called Angevin Door records. The original orientation was reversed, main portal, rose window, and altar all shifted, either under Robert of Anjou in the early fourteenth century or during the enlargement of 1521–1547. The upper portions of the twin bell towers and the small loggia between them were added in the eighteenth century.

History

Construction began in 1232 at the will of Frederick II and continued until 1254. In 1248, at the emperor's urging, Pope Innocent IV freed the church from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Bari, making it one of only four 'palatine' churches in Apulia, answerable directly to Rome rather than to a local diocese. The building collapsed on 29 January 1316, as an inscription on its Angevin Door still records, and was rebuilt with master masons brought from nearby Bitonto, its orientation reversed so that the rose-windowed facade now faces the piazza. The upper stages of the twin bell towers and the small loggia between them were added in the eighteenth century, after lightning struck the towers twice in 1726.

Significance

Since 1986 the cathedral has been the seat of the Bishop of Altamura-Gravina-Acquaviva delle Fonti. Its Gothic portal, carved with twenty-two scenes from the life of Christ and guarded by two stone lions, and its fourteenth-century rose window with fifteen rays around a bas-relief of the Lamb of God, make it one of Apulia's principal monuments of Hohenstaufen-era church building. Each 15 August the town carries a silver statue of the Madonna Assunta in procession through the streets, a tradition kept every year since 1699.

Architecture

Apulian Romanesque-Gothic 'palatine' church architecture