| Because of its volumetric and spatial aspects- peculiar of Renaissance and Baroque style, the church of St. Francesco d’ Assisi, church of the friars called Minori Conventuali, is one of the most beautiful churches in Monopoli, built in the XVIIIth century.
The desire to build a new church, destroying the previous one, that couldn’t receive and satisfy people aspirations and needs, because it was in an evident state of ruin with the exception of a facade on the side of the church where there was a small portal, according to a precious manuscript preserved at Diocesan Records Office. The architect was Michele Colangiuli from Acquaviva.
The project of the church of St. Francesco was planned by the architect Colangiuli who, many months later, in the month of January, 1742 worked together with the engineer Magarelli Pietro from Molfetta for the rebuilding of the famous Basilica della Madonna della Madia, the Saint-protector of Monopoli.
The confraternities and the political institutions of the town had confidence in Michele Colangiuli; he was an outstanding skilfull engineer, with a deep honesty, a technical expertise, keen on his work. According to the inscription on the Triumphal Arch, the building of the Church and two architectural orders-bell tower was finished around 1749. Mastro Nicolò Ferrante from Lecce was called as a building surveyor by the friars of S. Francesco; the surveyor for the engineer Colangiuli was Sallustio, who worked in the town of Andria as an engineer too.
On the outside, Vanvitelli works of art, the famous Neapolitan architect who worked in our town, in Barletta and maybe in Fasano, reveal echoes of Borromini patterns.
Colangiuli planned the facade with the single nave on the inside harmonically, many side chapels that are not linked together with the pilasters that hold the side chapels' lintels up; the nave is in perfect keeping with the cross- vault and the dome. For stuccoes (decorative plasters) Colangiuli called Carlo Cassino who was an engineer and an architect from Milano. It's worth saying that thanks to his architectural style, that put the highlights on the design and the light, stuccoes are significant because they emphasize the different shadows profiles in contrapposition with the light large areas. The layout (of the church) made of domes, doors, oval windows, express the relation space-light in harmonic way.
Everything is measured and cosy. Thus, related to the richness of the roman Baroque, engineers tend to renovate the spirit of the Classicism with the chiaroscuro, a peculiar aspect of the Neapolitan churches and monasteries. |