| According to some scholars, the erection of the church of the Annunziata dates back to the 14th century. Because of its Gothic style architecture, it can be associated with the Abbazia di Sant’Anna, and with the rural church of the Madonna della Grotta; because of this, it is most certain that the church was erected during the same time of the latter two mentioned churches, i.e. around the 9th century. The church is located in the historic centre of the Village of Ceglie, at about 10 metres from the Piazza Vecchia, clung to some civil houses, and therefore, if it wasn’t for the one gable arching of its small belltower, it would be difficult to spot it among the other buildings. During the 18th century, it underwent refurbishments of the small portal, and of the only existing altar; nearby there are niches which contain the wooden, polychrome group of the Vergine and of the Arcangelo, and a papier-mâché statue portraying san Giuseppe. The small church met the needs of the tiny medieval community. Just like the majority of the town churches, this one too follows the canonical rule about the construction of the religious buildings, with the altar facing east. This historic building is mentioned in the papal Bull of Bonifacio IX, dated 29th January 1393; it reports that the Basilian Priorate of santa Maria dell’Annunziata of Ceglie appeared to be vacant, because of the transfer of the bishop; for this reason, the church of the Annunziata passed under the jurisdiction of the Abbey of Sant’Angelo dei Greci. From this document, it results that the church was under the authority of a Basilian priorate, and that the cult was officiated with the Greek rite, like in other religious complexes, such as the church of sant’Anna, the one of San Nicola and the one of san Michele. Just before the pastoral visit to Ceglie of the Bishop of Oria, Monsignor Castrense Scaja, during the first half of the 18th century, the archpriest Donato Maria Lombardi stated that the church of the Annunziata belonged to “the benefice or the monastic grange”, owned at the time by the eminent Cardinal Spinelli (this source is reported by the priest Gianfranco Gallone in the short essay “La chiesa e la devozione di san Rocco a Ceglie prima del ‘900” – which literally means “The church and the devotion of san Rocco in Ceglie before the 20th century”). During the middle Ages, the term for benefice or the monastic grange, indicated an agricultural cultivation, under the control of an abbey of a Priorate. The benefice in question, to which the church belonged, was instead a plot of land of the old county farm called “Insarti”. Later on, the land became property of the Chapter of Ceglie, to which the Rector of the Collegio degli Scolopi of Ceglie, who were based at the farm called delle “Scolopie”, paid “an annual, perennial tax of 4ducats and 7 and a half grana coins”, as it is reported in the Platea of san Domenico in the Archivio di Stato of Brindisi. With the suppression of the Religious Orders in 1806, that piece of land was finally bought by the noble family Allegretti. |