| Every inhabitant of Manduria considers it the most superlative monument of the town. No one can hid the pride for this noble church, example of great value of religious architecture of Puglia. Gothic and Catalan elements are added to the Romanesque plant. The building was set in the same place of the ancient medieval church, smaller than the actual one, limited to the place of the presbytery. The two lions collocated at the sides of the portal belonged to this former church ; the way they are made let us imagine the importance of what should be a little- big architectonical jewel of many centuries ago, now lost. The built of the actual church began at the end of the XV century and finished by the second half of the following century, maybe in 1562. The name of the architect is not known, even if the splendid portal, the overhanging rose-window in the façade and the font –dated 1534- are all works of the master Raimondo da Francavilla. The building has a quadrangular plant and is composed of five naives, of which the central one has a wooden caisson ceiling restored in 1938; then there is the presbytery and a high, elegant hexagonal apse. The naives are supported by columns which, in this case, are higher and more puissant than usual, and have original composite capitals. In the presbytery there are still the plinths of pillars which are taught to belong to the XI century church. Very interesting are the vaults of Catalan influences of the smaller aisles – discovered during the restorations of the first half of the last century- and the wonderful wooden pulpit of the 1608, monument of national interest. The inside of the collegiate church is particularly suggestive, every place and every element in it is worth to be underlined, because of its connection to the past of Manduria. There are a lot of altars which have been dedicated with devotion by several families of the town, in many ages, by means of special donations to the clergy. There are also two big chapels, respectively dedicated to the Holy Sacrament and to the patron St.Gregory the Great. But the attention has to be paid also to the façade with the spired fronton, the magnificent rose-window and the beautiful portal dated 1532 surmounted by a lunette with the altorilievo of the Trinity, to which the cathedral is dedicated. An effective dissonance is created by two lateral partitions at straight weathered, in which there are two other entrance doors. Then there is the church tower , incorporated between the aisles on the right and the presbytery. Dated approximately to the end of the XV century , it seems to have been completed in successive stages, as it is witnessed by the apparent stylistic difference of the floors it is composed of. |