San Francesco d’Assisi’s church and its casket
The church of San Francesco di Assisi in Ostuni is located in Piazza della Libertà and, seen from afar, it looks like a continuation of the building housing the town hall. This church, built by Padri Minori conventuali in 1304 in the Colombro garden on a land donated by Filippo, Prince of Taranto, was later given to the Arciconfraternita dell’Immacolata Concezione, which still runs it today.
The church’s late 19th-century façade is the work of the local architect Gaetano Iurleo and it is in line with the neoclassical town hall (also known as Palazzo San Francesco). The façade, dedicated to the Gloriosae Reginae Mundi, is divided into two bands by a cornice running across half of the façade, with an atypical Romanesque window at the top which increases its momentum and accentuates the preciousness of the whole. At the bottom there are two Carrara marble statues made by the local sculptor Francesco Bagnulo (1911-1991), placed in 1935 in the two niches beside the main door: San Francesco di Assisi and San Antonio da Padova. In the first of these, the sense of placid vigour inspired by the figure of the saint taming the wolf is remarkable.
The exact spot where San Francesco di Assisi gave his speech is indicated by a marble statue of the saint, made in 1926, situated at the back of the church.
The church has early 20th century statues of the Good Friday Mysteries, part of which are lined up next to the left altar of the cross vault. These are the ones that are still paraded in the Good Friday procession. The first of these mysteries is Jesus in the Garden. This statue was decorated with wild orange trees, derived from the bitter orange tree which San Francesco is said to have left in Ostuni returning from the Holy Land.
Worthy of note are the painting of the school of Luca Giordano, the statue of the Immaculate Conception by Giacomo Colombo and the half-bust of St. Joseph holding the Infant Jesus once located in the chapel of the Zevallos dukes. The portal of the Church of St Francis of Assisi in Ostuni is made of bronze and it was the work of the Roman sculptor Egidio Giaroli. From one of its most vivid scenes, linked to the town of Ostuni, derives the name of the portal Cavalluccio.
