Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta: Cathedral and Mother Church of Tricarico
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Kingdom of Naples, Norman
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page7 sections
History
Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Tricarico, Italy, built in the eleventh century in the Romanesque style at the request of Robert Guiscard, the Norman duke who established power in southern Italy. It serves as the cathedral and mother church of the Diocese of Tricarico and is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
Origins and medieval history
A bishopric at Tricarico is securely recorded from 968. A cathedral may have existed in connection with that early bishopric, but its presence at that date is not certain. The present church was constructed in the eleventh century with donations from Robert Guiscard’s nephew, Robert of Montescaglioso. Its original Romanesque character reflected a medieval architectural style known for massive construction, rounded arches, and strongly articulated masonry.
The cathedral later became the setting for a major political ceremony. In 1383, Louis I of Anjou, an Angevin ruler, was crowned king of Naples there.
Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century transformation
The building was repeatedly altered and enlarged. Bishop Pier Luigi Carafa the Elder undertook works in 1638, and Bishop Pier Luigi Carafa the Younger carried out further interventions after the plague of 1657.
Between 1774 and 1777, Bishop Antonio del Plato directed a major campaign involving craftsmen from Naples. The royal engineer Carlo Brancolino and the architect Domenico Sannazzaro directed the work, which definitively transformed the cathedral through a new decorative scheme and the addition of lateral chapels.
Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta remains an active Catholic place of worship. It houses the relics of Saint Potitus, a Christian martyr associated with Tricarico and the patron saint of the town and diocese, and Saint Anthony the Abbot, an early Christian ascetic traditionally regarded as a founder of monasticism. The cathedral also contains the remains of the Venerable Bishop Raffaello delle Nocche.
Remains
The cathedral has a basilical plan, with a central nave flanked by two side aisles, a crosswise transept, lateral chapels, and a presbytery divided into three distinct quadrangular spaces. Two large supporting arches abut the facade. Built in the seventeenth century to improve the building’s stability, especially that of the facade, they are described as unique in the region.
Secretarium and sculpture
The chapel known as the Secretarium contains a fragment of a carved third-century sarcophagus. Its relief depicts the pagan myth of Myrrha and Adonis. The chapel’s vault retains well-preserved seventeenth-century stucco, a molded plaster decoration applied to architectural surfaces.
Paintings and wooden triptych
The cathedral preserves a wooden triptych from the first half of the sixteenth century. It depicts the Madonna and Child between Saints Francis and Anthony and is attributed to the anonymous artist known as Maestro ZT.
Works by Cesare Scerra, a painter from Tricarico active in the mid-seventeenth century, include The Madonna of Purity between Saint Cajetan and Saint Andrew Avellino and the Souls in Purgatory and The Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The collection also includes Pietro Antonio Ferro’s Transport to the Tomb, painted in 1607, and The Deposition, completed in 1634.
Bell tower
The square-plan bell tower retains a thirteenth-century mullioned window, whose separate openings are divided by vertical stone members, and a bell from the same period. The tower originally stood apart from the church and was crowned by a triangular bell gable. After that structure was removed, the tower was given a roof with four regular slopes.
