| We do not know the exact year of foundation of the Monastery of the Benedictine nuns of Acquaviva, but according to documents found we can with certainty be placed between 1570 and 1590. But we know the name of the founder of the first: it was the "Reverend Mother Agatha Acquaviva d'Aragona woman of illustrious Counts of Conversano" in the feudal era of Acquaviva.
Several historical events testify to the active participation of Benedictine nuns in the life of the local church and the most outstanding events of the city.
The style of the church is Late Renaissance - Baroque. The facade has two parts: the lower section is made of stone, the upper tuff. The columns are Tuscan order (Renaissance). On them rests the entablature with proper symbology abbey (miter, and pastoral, monstrance, eucharist, etc..). On the portal, overlooking the statue of St. Blessed with the next raven surrounded by richly decorated with festoons typical Baroque pattern.
Next to the bell-tower facade is all stone. It rests on a foundation consisting of two sections: one in the Tuscan order, the other with rusticated pilasters of the composite order.
Inside the church there are six side chapels: originally there were four altars, while today there are only two, one of which is inlaid wood that matches the typical stone altar of the baroque Lecce, of considerable value, dedicated to the Madanna Thanks, with a central fresco on plaster depicting the Madonna and Child, the other, surmounted by a large canvas depicting the Deposition of Christ flanked by St. Benedict and Bernard and kneeling St. Scholastica. It has recently been constructed in a side chapel, the altar of St. Cyrus. The original no longer present altars were demolished in early 1900.
The central altar is inlaid marble coeval with the church. On it is represented a mosaic of the Madonna of Carmel in 1951, the two sides recent gouaches painted by a local artist, painted in tempera. |