We made a not too early start today and went to Galatina to see a famous church there, the church of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, a rare survival in the Gothic style. It was built between 1384 and 1391, but what is so remarkable about it is the frescos inside.
This is not my photo, it comes from the Internet - my photos are nothing like as good as this!
A number of artists of the school of Giotto decorated the church with a cycle of seventeen subjects, including scenes of the Apocalypse, Noah’s Ark, Genesis, the life of Jesus, the four evangelists, the life of Mary and also scenes of life Saint Catherine of Alexandria.
This shows the detail of some of the frescos.
These are scenes from the life of Christ. You might recognise the flight into Egypt at the top of the arch.
The only other frescoed church I've ever seen in the least like this is the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, and this one doesn't equal it and unfortunately it isn't so well preserved, but it's still quite stunning. The date is a little later of course, though still mainly 14th century. There are some later frescos; one we saw was dated 1425, and there were some from a century later.
I'm not sure of the date of the ones below
The fresco shows St Catherine herself and on her right is an Annunciation. It was hard to get far enough away from it to get a photo of all of it, as there are pillars in the way.
We paid a quick visit to the Diocesan Museum where there is a charming cloister (it used to be a convent) decorated with 16th century frescos.
The museum itself houses Franciscan choir stalls and a large collection of reliquaries.
We visited a nice coffee shop to get out of the rain, then we were off again in the bus to Gallipoli, a town on the west side of the heel of Italy's boot.
Gallipoli, like many towns, has a new part and and old town. In this case, the old town sits on a tiny island connected to the mainland by a 17th century bridge. It is almost completely surrounded by defensive walls, built mainly in the 14th century.
The east side is dominated by a robust fortress dating back to the 13th century, but largely rebuilt in the 1500s when the town fell under Angevin control.
These fortifications say a lot about Gallipoli’s history; thanks to its strategic position, it was frequently under siege. Early in its history it was part of Magna Graecia and remained so until it was conquered by the Romans. (People in this south eastern region of Italy still speak a dialect which bears a lot of relation to Ancient Greek. Our guide for the day said his grandmother, who came from England and lived in the area for 3 years, learned the dialect but no Italian)
After the town had been sacked successively by hordes of Vandals and Goths, the Byzantines arrived, rebuilding the old town very much in the form it can be seen today. Normans, Angevins and the Bourbons arrived in successive waves until the Unification of Italy in 1861.
The island centre of Gallipoli is home to numerous impressive Baroque churches and aristocratic palazzi, testament to the town's former wealth as a trading port. It was apparently well known for the export of lamp oil.
This is the cathedral, dedicated to St Agatha. It doesn't have a big square in front of it like most churches because the island had limited space and the population grew so every square metre was used for housing.
There is a positively labyrinthine weave of narrow streets all eventually leading to the sea-front promenade.
What we found surprising about these narrow streets is that cars drive up and down them. Pedestrians hastily jump out of the way when they hear one approaching.
There is a wonderful fish market, which sells that day's catch.
They even cook it for you on the spot. Many of our party lunched there on the fresh fish, but Paul said he had had such a big breakfast that he didn't need any lunch, so we did without.
After shopping and wandering, we went back to the bus and set off back to Lecce. We are off to Vieste tomorrow, though fortunately not with a very early start.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment