| Church, ruined church, chapel, temple,Monastery,Settlement of cultural or religious importance |
| In the countryside between Brindisi and Lecce, the pilgrims had the option of making a small detour to the Italo-Greek abbey of Santa Maria di Cerrate, rebuilt in the late 12th century by Tancred Count of Lecce and future king of Sicily.
Above the arch of the portal, in the centre of a Gothic nativity cycle is the Adoration of the Magi. Medieval travellers saw these archetypal pilgrims – the first in the history of Christianity – as their protectors and patrons, and stopped to pray before their images as they came across them along the most important roads. The image in Cerrate shows Melchior, the eldest, with beard and long hair, carrying gold in a bag; Balthasar, mature and bearded and perhaps black in accordance with tradition, offers myrrh in a ciborium; lastly, there is Caspar, young and clean-shaven, holding incense. Explicit allusions to pilgrimage can also be seen in the Washing of the Child, which reflects a contemporary Palestinian practice, in the figure of St. Joseph resting on a typical T-shaped staff, and in the graffito of a sailing ship on the façade.
Inside the church, divided into three naves, are frescoes dated to a period from the late 12th to the 15th centuries. Of considerable interest are the Christ in Glory in the apse and the Virgin with Child on the side wall. The Holy Knights, St. George in particular, once again echo the Crusades to the Holy Land.
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