Picturesque and all to discover is Ostuni, the White City. Renowned tourist destination, boasts a wonderful medieval village, full of narrow streets. Among the white alleys of the village it is easy to see why it is called “the White City”: each house is painted white with lime paint.
Renowned tourist center, from 1994 to 2017 it received the Blue Flag and the five sails of Legambiente for cleaning the waters of its coast and for the quality of services offered, becoming the city with the cleanest sea in Italy. Moreover, in 2005, the Puglia Region recognized the municipality as a “tourist resort”. There are several monuments of Ostuni that you can visit.
Palazzo Vescovile and the Loggia
In the square, on either side of the Cathedral, are the Bishop’s Palace and the Seminary’s palace joined by an elegant arched loggia (1759), on whose fastigium a winged putto (originally two) was placed. Completely restored in the Rococo style during the 18th century, the building is joined to the adjacent Palazzo del Seminario by the arched Loggia built in 1759, surmounted by a winged putto (although originally they were two).
The current building was rebuilt in 1743 on a previous building built in 1560 and destroyed during an earthquake of 1743. The current building includes the underground, formerly used as prisons, the current prospect with the entrance door on which it stands the emblem of Queen Isabella D’Aragona. In the Episcopal Palace lie the remains of the castle built in 1148 and demolished in 1559.
On the vertical of the entrance door of the building, adjacent to the cathedral parvis, is visible, even if very eroded, a coat of arms with the arms of the Sforza of Milan and the Aragonese of Naples with an inscription engraved on a phylactery. On it we read a Latin motto taken from the biblical book of the Psalms: “CUM UMBRA ALARUM TUARUM PROTEGE NOS” (Under the shadow of your protecting wings). The invocation is addressed to the eagle, symbol of the Sforza family.
This emblem is justified by the marriage that took place in the XV between Gian Galeazzo Sforza and Isabella d’Aragona. Then, on the site occupied by the bishop’s palace, there was a castle that was demolished to make room for the palace of the queen. This, in addition to hosting the regnant, by law was also used by the bishops who over the centuries took possession of it as an exclusive property.
The Defensive Walls of Ostuni
The walls of Ostuni, rebuilt in the late Middle Ages by the Angevins, between 1350 and 1356, with the “sack” construction technique and subsequently extended towards the south by the Aragonese between 1487 and 1507, on projects written by architects who came with Alfonso Duke of Calabria, were largely demolished in the eighteenth century at the behest of mayors and decurions of those years, unable to repair the damage suffered by the curtains and towers, and ended up largely incorporated into private facilities.
The subdivision of the walls allowed the increase of public revenues through the collection of censuses and notary protocols amply testify the incident: the ancient administrators noted in the “Platea” of the universal income all the “wall funds to build houses” sold to private individuals.
Palazzo Municipale of Ostuni
The Church of San Francesco di Ostuni is a building of Gothic origin, but the original fourteenth-century forms little remains, since in the seventeenth century it was the subject of a full-scale restoration, which donated today’s baroque forms to the building. The facade was designed in 1883 by architect Gaetano Jurleo to adapt it to the forms of the Palazzo Comunale, also in Piazza della Libertà.
Medieval, Baroque and Neoclassical architectural elements are cast in the façade of the Church of San Francesco. The life of Saint Francis is represented in the bronze door, while the statues of San Francesco and Sant’Antonio are still on the façade.
The church of San Francesco develops with a single nave; very beautiful is the polychrome high altar. The façade of the monastery was modified in the same period as that of the church, to give the structure an artistic homogeneity. The rooms of the former monastery are developed on two floors; on the first floor there were the rooms of the friars, while on the ground floor were the spaces used by all the monks.
The Column of Sant’Oronzo
In May of 1997, one year after the restoration of the cloister, the obelisk of Sant’Oronzo was demolished in bad condition due to atmospheric agents. Even the boulders below the simulacrum were in poor condition due to the erosion of the artistic segments. The effigy in stone was momentarily placed along the right arm of the cloister where the trunks of the statue of St. Orronzo were arranged, awaiting restoration. The cloister, a convent of the Franciscans until the beginning of the nineteenth century, and the statue of the saint, thus formed a particularly interesting duet to reflect on the variegated forms of restoration which, for some time, was being witnessed in Ostuni. Even the putti that crown the obelisk, after the restoration seemed almost smiling happy and amused for that ‘make-up’ that, hopefully, will last for many years. After the meticulous restoration lasting about a year, a statue and a spire, which in Ostuni are called ‘the column of Sant’Oronzo’, were relocated in their place to be admired again in their full beauty.
The church of the Holy Spirit
Behind the spire, on the right, at the beginning of Via Roma, then outside the ancient city walls, stands the small church dedicated to the Holy Spirit. The portal is an authentic jewel of Renaissance decorative sculpture, in fact it is declared a national monument. The bas-reliefs of the lunette on the portal depict the Dormitio Virginis. The Virgin is lying on the bed and is surrounded by the twelve Apostles who devoutly pray waiting for the angels who will accompany the ascent of Our Lady to the Eternal.
The box above, that is the triangular tympanum, symbol of the Divine Spirit, presents in the center, the Madonna surrounded by many small faces. On the corners there is the Annunciation, on the left corner there is the angel with the lily in his hand while on the opposite one there is the Madonna kneeling, as a sign of thanksgiving. In addition to the sculptural representation, what makes the portal magnificent is a series of floral and decorative patterns that encompass every detail.
The two side pilasters close the facial elevation ending at the top with a broken tympanum. The 16th century “1637” which is read on the cusp of the façade refers to the conclusion of the works commissioned at the beginning of the XVII century by the bishop Vincenzo Meligne, who affixed his coat of arms.
The interior does not preserve traces of the original seventeenth-century structure, also because in the twentieth century it was subject to two restorations that covered the church with precious marble concealing perhaps ancient traces.
Among the works preserved inside there is the beautiful painting by Jacopo da San Vito depicting the Madonna with Child and Saints Joachim, Anne and Elizabeth. In a niche there is a seventeenth-century wooden statue of sant’Oronzo and in another niche stands the dressed statue of Our Lady of Good Counsel.
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Palazzo Rodio
Nineteenth-century palace located in the center of Ostuni. Renovated respecting the original style.
Via Bianchieri 43,72017 Ostuni (BR)
