Site Details

Anglona, Santa Maria


 

Field Name Contents
Title (variant) (none or unknown)
Description The entrance is through a square porch covered by a rib vault with a single window in the west wall. The entrance arch on the exterior of the porch is decorated with relief panels of the four Evangelists, perhaps re-used from a pulpit. The left aisle culminates in a west tower, and is decorated with a corbel table at the top, and there are double-arched windows with twin columns decorated by capitals the four sides of the tower. The second tower on the south side was never completed. The external walls of the aisles are undecorated, and pierced by simple windows and a door on the southern flank. The 13th century apse is ornamented with blind arches and has a large absidial window flanked by columns. Construction materials are stone and brick. The ground plan consists of three naves divided by square pillars which support five arches and barrel vaults in the south aisle, with groin vaults in the north. Triumphal arch leads to the non-protruding transept and then a deep choir with a single apse.
Type Cathedral
Style/Culture
Period
Notes Earliest elements date from the late 11th century. Visited by pope Urban II in 1092. The apse transformation dates from the first half of the 13th century. After an earthquake in the 15th century, the left side of the church was reconstructed. The adjacent bishopric was built in the 15th century and the lateral right nave lost. Wall frescoes date from the 12th and the 13th centuries. Donation by Frederick II in 1221. Loses cathedral status in 1546. The see is transferred to Tursi. The introduction of the new benedictine liturgy required the enlargement of the choir area in the 13th century and a change in the interior proportions. the 1960s restoration work revealed remains of two more apses at the ends of lateral naves. There are numerous remains of frescoes on the walls. Scenes from the Old and the New Testament have been identified as well as traces of Greek inscriptions. Individual figures of saints visible on the pillars are a later addition. The surrounding town no longer exists.