Church Maria Santissima Annunziata: Modugno’s Mother Church in Italy
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- Italy
- Primary era
- Early Modern
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- Medieval, Early Modern
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- Byzantine, Habsburg, Kingdom of Naples, Spanish
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- Religious
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- Church
On this page24 sections
History
Church Maria Santissima Annunziata in Modugno, Italy, is the town’s principal Catholic place of worship and mother church, dedicated to the Annunciation, the Christian episode in which the archangel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will bear Jesus. It belongs to the Archdiocese of Bari-Bitonto and follows the Roman Catholic rite. The present building is chiefly a seventeenth-century enlargement of an earlier church, combining late Renaissance, Romanesque, Gothic, and Baroque elements with later additions.
From Santa Maria di Modugno to the Annunciation church
Modugno’s earliest settlement grew near the former Church of Santa Maria di Modugno, probably about one kilometre from the present town centre beside the ancient Via Minincia Traiana. Originally dedicated to the Assumption, that church served as Modugno’s first mother church. It is now a ruin, retaining its exterior walls and some ancient frescoes. Until the early twentieth century, the clergy of Modugno continued to process there twice each year, on 15 August and 25 April.
The settlement around Santa Maria di Modugno was probably destroyed during Saracen raids in the Terra di Bari in the ninth century. The population took refuge in the Motta, a small castle on elevated ground defended by Byzantine troops. The present town developed around that fortified refuge. By about the year 1000, population growth and the distance of the older church from the inhabited area encouraged the construction of a new church on the site of the present building. Dedicated to the Annunciation, it originally had a basilical plan with three aisles.
Byzantine and Norman ecclesiastical administration
During the eleventh century, when Modugno was under Byzantine rule, the town was a suffragan episcopal seat. A suffragan see was a bishopric placed under the authority of a metropolitan archbishop, although Modugno did not possess a territorial diocese. The town appears in a papal bull issued by John XIX in 1025 and in another issued by Alexander II in 1062.
After Robert Guiscard conquered Bari in 1071, Norman rule gradually returned the churches of southern Italy to Roman control while initially preserving the existing suffragan organization. A bull of Urban II dated 1089 lists Modugno among the suffragan sees under Elia, Archbishop of Bari. Bulls issued by Eugene III in 1152 and Alexander III in 1172 no longer include Modugno in that group. From then on, the town belonged to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Bari.
The memory of Modugno’s former episcopal dignity remained part of the church’s ceremonial life. It retained the privilege of celebrating a solemn Mass of nine priests, consisting of six priests, the celebrant, and two ministers according to the Greek pontifical tradition. This history later supported the campaign for collegiate status. A collegiate church is served by a chapter of clergy but is not the seat of a bishop.
Medieval repairs and early modern institutions
In 1347 Bartolomeo Carafa, Archbishop of Bari and feudal lord of Modugno, fortified the town in anticipation of a possible Hungarian invasion and restored the deteriorating Annunciation church. The church’s chapter, a body of clergy responsible for solemn and organized liturgical service, also developed its own regulations. An earlier statute had been destroyed during the plague epidemic of 1503. A replacement statute dated 8 October 1517 prohibited the appointment of an outsider as archpriest, the principal priest of the church.
Urgent repairs were still needed in 1518, when the Chapter of Modugno appealed to Queen Bona Sforza. She granted 100 ducats for the work. Bona Sforza, the Renaissance queen of Poland and duchess of Bari, and her husband, Sigismund I of Poland, approved the chapter statute on 25 January 1527.
The seventeenth-century enlargement
By the end of the sixteenth century, donations were being collected for a larger church. Population growth made a substantial enlargement necessary at the beginning of the seventeenth century, but construction began only after the town administration, or Università, assumed most of the expense. The architect Bartolomeo Amendola, also known as Amendolara, of Monopoli, incorporated the older church into the new design and created the present bell tower.
Work began in 1604 and ended in 1626. The medieval church was not demolished. Instead, it became the presbytery and the first section of the nave, while the extension continued beyond it. Religious services were already being held in the rebuilt older section and the first part of the new nave by 1622.
On 13 November 1622, lightning struck the church during religious rites. Three priests, Belardino Corrado, Angelo de Francesco, and Donato Antonio Crudele, died, as did the cleric Donato Torraro. The electrical discharge passed through a crucifix beneath the organ near the high altar. It burned away the cross while leaving the figure of Christ intact. The surviving figure came to be regarded as miraculous and became an object of popular veneration.
After the building was completed, the altar beneath the arch near the presbytery was dedicated to the miraculous Crucifix. In 1656, after a plague epidemic ended shortly before its annual celebration, the Crucifix was counted among Modugno’s patron figures. The Congregation of Rites formally recognized the long-standing solemn celebrations on 7 September 1876. The festival, held in early November, combined religious ceremonies with secular events. Its fair first sold agricultural products and later included farm tools, household implements, clothing, and animals. Its original economic role declined as shops and supermarkets developed.
Ascanio Gesualdo, Archbishop of Bari and Canosa and Patriarch of Constantinople, consecrated the new church on 15 November 1626. Archpriest Camillo Cerri and the mayor, Donato Olimpio, were present, and a commemorative inscription was placed on the facade. Building activity continued after the consecration. The Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament was built in 1642, the high altar dates from 1666, the roof was completed in 1698, and Domenico Scura painted the wooden ceiling around the same period. Two statues representing the Annunciation and the Archangel Gabriel were installed on the entrance portal in 1717.
The chapter and collegiate status
The Chapter of Modugno functioned as a receptive chapter, a body responsible for worship but without the full status of cathedral canons. In the seventeenth century, Archbishop Giovanni Granafei granted the town’s priests the honorary title of canon, although the chapter remained receptive. Its collegiate body had 33 members. In 1702 the church was served by an archpriest, two senior clerics known as primiceri, and 84 priests. In 1754 it had 60 presbyters.
Ferdinand II reorganized the kingdom’s chapters in 1830. The Modugno chapter increased from 33 to 40 participating priests, excluding the parish priest. The membership comprised 12 senior and 28 junior members, and its income was fixed at 6,260 ducats.
Pope Pius IX granted the church the title of Insigne Collegiate Church in a bull dated 6 March 1854, and Ferdinand II confirmed it by royal decree on 8 April. The chapter was to contain 41 canons and the church was assigned an endowment of 8,000 ducats. The request drew on Modugno’s former episcopal status, the church’s size, the chapter’s moral standing, its vestments and furnishings, its income, and the size of the town.
Laws passed in 1866 and 1867 suppressed religious orders and many secular ecclesiastical bodies and transferred their property to the state. The Collegiate Church lost its property, and the number of clergy fell sharply. The Lateran Pacts of 1929 restored the legal capacity of religious associations to own property but did not return the confiscated assets. The collegiate title therefore continued without its corresponding financial endowment.
Twentieth-century restoration and the parish archive
Later interventions altered and repaired several parts of the church. The altar of Saint Roch was constructed in 1907, and Archpriest Alberto Romita restored the altar of Our Lady of Sorrows in 1911. Between 1936 and 1939, Archpriest Federico Alvigni directed extensive work. The floor was replaced, the roof structure was consolidated, the painted ceiling was restored, statue niches were created, and tufa altars were replaced with marble ones. Paintings and frescoes in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament were also restored, and the bell tower was repaired.
The bell tower and nave roof were partly consolidated during the 1970s, although the work remained unfinished because of a lack of funds. The parish archive was catalogued and reorganized in the early 2000s. It also preserves documents from other religious institutions formerly active in Modugno, including more than 90 parchments dating from 1411 to the eighteenth century, pastoral-visit records from 1513 to 1963, inventories from the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, papers from eight local notaries, and correspondence associated with Bona Sforza. Among the correspondence are autograph letters dated 1545 and 1556.
Remains
Plan, alignment, and facade
The present church combines the medieval building with the seventeenth-century extension. The main body is a single nave approximately 45 metres long and 14 metres wide. The earlier church forms the presbytery and the first part of the nave, with the presbytery itself measuring about 17 metres. The two sections are slightly misaligned because the later extension inclines toward the north-west to avoid pre-existing buildings. Amendola adjusted the positions of the pillars around the Chapels of Our Lady of Sorrows and the Blessed Sacrament to make the change of axis less conspicuous. Some archpriests gave the inclination a symbolic interpretation, comparing it with Christ’s bowed head, while the practical cause was the restricted building site.
The late Renaissance facade is built from white limestone. A large forecourt precedes it, while cornices and pilasters divide its surface. The rectangular entrance portal has mouldings, tall pedestals, and Corinthian columns supporting a richly decorated double entablature. Vegetal friezes and confronting griffins surround the town emblem, the wild cardoon. Above the entablature stand full-round statues of the Annunciation and the Archangel Gabriel, beneath the inscription “Ave Maria gratia plena.” A relief of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove crowns the portal.
The upper level contains two arched openings at the sides and a wider rectangular central window with a balustrade of small pillars. A large triangular pediment, ornamented with two acroteria and an oval oculus, completes the facade.
Presbytery and high altar
The presbytery preserves the three-aisled division of the medieval church. Large stone columns with varied capitals carry four pointed arches and an octagonal hemispherical dome with a lantern. The stained-glass windows date from 1967, and the central window shows Christ giving a blessing. The apse window contains a stained-glass interpretation of Bartolomeo Vivarini’s Annunciation, commissioned by Federico Alvigni in 1938.
High altar and Vivarini Annunciation
The Baroque high altar dates from 1666 and uses ancient yellow Siena marble together with Egyptian green marble. Archbishop Ernesto Gazzella consecrated it in 1888, an event recalled by a plaque in the transept. A ciborium and tabernacle were added in 1952. A ciborium can be a Eucharistic vessel, while a tabernacle is the container used to reserve consecrated hosts. Before these additions, the Blessed Sacrament was kept at the altar in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.
A marble inlaid balustrade and three steps separate the presbytery from the nave. Beside the right side of the balustrade hangs the church’s most valuable artwork, an Annunciation attributed to Bartolomeo Vivarini, a fifteenth-century Venetian painter associated with the Vivarini family workshop.
Chapel of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino
Beside the apse is the Chapel of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, formerly dedicated to Our Lady of Constantinople. Its Baroque altar belonged to the Stella family in the eighteenth century. It contains a statue of Saint Nicholas, a small painting of the Madonna and Child, and a painting of Our Lady of the Belt with the Child between Saint Augustine and Saint Monica.
Nave altars and paintings
The nave walls are divided by pilasters and a continuous entablature at mid-height. Large round arches frame side shrines with blind upper sections. Modugno’s noble families associated these shrines with their patronage and family tombs, and their coats of arms appear above the arches. The shrines contain paintings, niches for saints, and seven altars. Four were rebuilt in polychrome marble in 1939 and 1940.
Ceiling and counter-facade
The wooden ceiling consists of boards supported by a truss beneath the roof. Around the end of the seventeenth century, Domenico Scura painted it with imitation architectural forms, garlands, and putti surrounding three scenes: the Triumph of the Cross, the Annunciation, and the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Above the entrance is Salvatore Pedicini’s 1888 painting of the apparition of Our Lady of Sorrows during the siege of 10 March. The left wall holds a seventeenth-century Neapolitan-school painting of Saint Peter Martyr, Modugno’s first patron. On the right is a seventeenth-century painting of Saint Nicholas of Bari by an unidentified local painter of the Bitonto school. Three stained-glass windows in the counter-facade show Saint Luke, the Triumph of the Cross, and Saint Mark. The Camper firm of Atri made them in 1967, along with the windows of the dome.
Baptismal font and Souls in Purgatory altar
The first nave arch contains the baptismal font, rebuilt in 1966 in place of the original font of 1718. Its base has a Neapolitan-style beaten floor, three circular stone steps, and the monolithic basin from the older font. Nearby is Umberto Colonna’s 1966 fresco of the Baptism of Christ.
The second arch contains the carved and gilded wooden Altar of the Souls in Purgatory. It was made in 1664 under Archpriest Francesco De Felice and was originally dedicated to Our Lady of the Snows. In 1940 it received a wooden relief of the Crucifix with the Souls in Purgatory by the Mussner firm of Ortisei, together with gilded wooden steps and a ciborium. A seventeenth-century Neapolitan-school painting of Our Lady of Grace stands above it, while the keystone carries the arms of the De Felice family.
Above the first two arches is a large canvas of the Immaculate Conception, attributed to Carlo Porta and dated to the second half of the seventeenth century. Clarisse nuns commissioned it for the Church of the Monacelle. It was transferred to the Annunziata in 1968 and shows the Virgin accompanied by two Franciscan tertiary saints, one identifiable as Saint Louis IX of France.
Altars of Our Lady of Pompeii and Saint Roch
The third arch contains the Altar of Our Lady of Pompeii and Umberto Colonna’s 1940 painting of the Virgin of the Rosary. Before 1940, the altar was dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Bari and held the painting now placed in the counter-facade. The Violillo family arms surmount the arch.
The fourth arch on the right contains the Gothic-style Altar of Saint Roch, built in 1907 through the efforts of Monsignor Romita with donations from Modugno emigrants in Toronto. It holds a statue of Saint Roch that was formerly kept in the Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows. An earlier altar dedicated to the Guardian Angel occupied the same position, and its painting is now in the left side of the transept.
Above the third and fourth right-hand arches is a seventeenth-century painting of the Adoration of the Magi in a richly decorated frame. The Neapolitan-school work shows Hispano-Flemish influence. During a twentieth-century cleaning, the name Carlo Rosa and the date 1666 were found on it. Niches in the upper order contain false statues of Saint Paul and Saint Peter, created by cutting painted canvases and applying them to boards. They are probably associated with the Bitonto painter Nicola Gliri.
Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows
The Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows occupies a deeper and larger arch than the other side shrines. Its white marble altar was originally dedicated to the Crucifix. In 1722, Annibale Pepe moved the Crucifix to the niche above the altar when he transferred devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows from the small Church of Santa Maria dello Spasimo to the mother church.
The chapel’s elaborate relief decoration was made in 1911 by the Carbone firm of Naples using carton-pierre, a lightweight sculptural material made from paper-based paste. The arch contains a seventeenth-century high relief of two angels holding Christ’s sudarium and an oval painting of Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Three niches contain sixteenth-century reliefs of caryatids, friezes, sirens, birds, and sea monsters. The side niches hold papier-mache statues of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and Saint Joseph. The central niche contains an eighteenth-century wooden statue dressed in black, with a white handkerchief and silver crown.
Corinthian columns flank the central niche, and their reliefs show women carrying fruit baskets. Two stained-glass windows made by Camper in 1967 depict the apparition of Our Lady of Sorrows during the Sanfedist siege and the Virgin among the founders of the Servite Order. The Sanfedisti supported the Bourbon monarchy and the Catholic restoration movement in southern Italy in 1799. The arch soffit contains seventeenth-century popular-style panels showing scenes from the Passion. Two full-round angels support the town arms, above which is a Marian monogram.
Altars on the left side of the nave
The left side of the nave contains a large painting of Saint Ursula attributed to the Flemish painter Gaspar Hovich. It was transferred from the Church of the Monacelle in 1968. The second arch contains the gilded wooden Altar of Saint Anthony, made by Mussner in 1940, with a wooden statue of the saint. It replaced a tufa altar dedicated to Saint Peter Martyr. Tufa is a porous limestone commonly used in construction. Patronage of the altar passed from the Flora family to the Longo family in 1759.
Above the first two left-hand arches is an eighteenth-century painting of the Risen Christ and Saint Thomas, attributed to Giuseppe Porta of Molfetta, a pupil of Corrado Giaquinto. Like the Saint Ursula, it came from the Church of the Monacelle in 1968.
The third arch contains the marble-painted Altar of the Sacred Heart, made in 1940 under Federico Alvigni. The Apostleship of Prayer, a Catholic devotional association centred on prayer in union with the intentions of the Church, administers it. The altar holds a wooden statue of the Heart of Jesus. The earlier altar was dedicated to the Adoration of the Magi.
The fourth arch contains the marble-painted Altar of the Immaculate Conception, made in 1940 with offerings collected by the Pious Union of the Daughters of Mary. It holds a wooden statue of the Immaculate Virgin. The former altar was dedicated to Saint Francis Xavier and was administered by his confraternity.
Above the third and fourth left-hand arches is a 1673 painting of Saint Charles Borromeo by a pupil of Cunavi, a Neapolitan painter connected with the school of Palma the Younger. Another upper niche contains a false painted-canvas statue of Saint Peter, probably by Nicola Gliri.
Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament
Built in 1642, the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament opens from the nave behind an inlaid, pierced marble balustrade and an iron grille. The entrance arch bears the town arms with putti and a painted eye containing a monstrance, the vessel used to display the consecrated host.
Dome, frescoes, and organ gallery
The chapel is square and covered by a smaller octagonal dome carried on four large arches. Camper made the drum windows between 1967 and 1969. Nicola Gliri frescoed the interior in the seventeenth century with the Church Triumphant, showing the Virgin among saints and angels. Three lunettes, semicircular areas of wall or vault, are attributed to Carlo Rosa. They depict Lazarus and the Rich Man, the Landscape of the Red Sea, and Queen Esther with King Ahasuerus.
A carved and gilded wooden choir gallery on the right wall contains a small pipe organ dating from the eighteenth or nineteenth century. Two frescoes of angels beside the organ are attributed to Umberto Colonna and date from 1939. The left wall contains a wooden statue of the Dead Christ and Giuseppe Montone’s 1905 painting of the Last Supper.
Altar and reliquary
The chapel altar is made of decorated white marble and was consecrated in 1672 in the presence of Archbishop Giovanni Granafei. It includes a repoussé silver ciborium decorated with scenes of the Last Supper and a marble throne used to display the Blessed Sacrament. Wooden statues from the seventeenth-century Neapolitan school, representing Saints Basileus and Castor, stand beside it.
Behind the altar is a large Baroque reliquary of gilded wood shaped as a Latin cross. It is divided into 28 numbered compartments and contains 57 identified relics of saint martyrs, together with additional relics of unnamed saints. The collection includes the skulls of Saints Vitus, Cyprian, Basileus, and Castor, as well as two finger phalanges, possibly belonging to Saint Conrad, in compartment 4.
The reliquary and its contents have been in the chapel since its consecration. Several relics were donated in the seventeenth century by the notary Amendola and by Bartolomeo Leone, an Apostolic Protonotary who served as substitute archpriest in 1639. Federico Alvigni carried out a canonical inspection, an ecclesiastically authorized examination and authentication of relics, on 29 March 1939 with permission from the archiepiscopal curia.
The compartments carried red-wax seals bearing the arms of Gennaro Adelelmo Pignatelli, Archbishop of Bari from 1770 to 1777. The relic of Saint Vitus’s shin was removed and donated to the Church of Santa Scolastica al Porto in Bari. The reliquary was resealed on 23 May 1939 in the presence of Monsignor Giovanni Anaclerio. Copies of the inspection record remain in the parish archive, in compartment 11 of the reliquary, and in the Curia of Bari.
Organ and bell tower
The present pipe organ behind the high altar was built in 1959 by Fratelli Ruffatti. It replaced an organ dating from 1615 that had been incorporated into a wooden choir in poor condition. The current electrically operated instrument has 22 stops, two 61-note keyboards, and a 32-note concave-radial pedalboard.
Structure of the bell tower
The bell tower is a seventeenth-century example of Apulian Romanesque, a regional architectural style that originated in the twelfth century. Its lower section forms a single body with the church up to the church terrace. The earlier tower was demolished in 1604, and Amendola began the present one during the enlargement. It reached its third level in 1612 and its loggia level by 1614. The planned completion date was 1615.
The tower has a square base measuring four metres on each side. Its successive levels contain windows that increase from biforas to triforas and quadriforas, meaning openings divided into two, three, and four sections. The openings are separated by columns with Corinthian capitals and small lunate arches. A set-back upper stage with biforas is capped by a square-based pyramid. A strongly projecting moulded cornice separates the loggia from the lower part.
An inscription around the tower carries the phrases “Christus Rex venit in pace,” “Et Deus homo factus est,” “Honorem Deo liberationem,” and “Patriae – A.D. 1914.” The same wording appears on the bell tower of Palo del Colle and on the Basilica of San Marco in Venice. The tower’s height has been given as 67 metres, 53 metres, or more than 60 metres, so its exact measurement remains uncertain.
Lightning damage and bells
Lightning struck the tower and church repeatedly, in 1622, 1726, 1747, and 1935. The 1726 strike damaged the organ and reduced the top of the bell tower without injuring anyone. A brass plaque commemorating the strike of 25 August 1747 was removed during the floor restoration of 1936 and was not replaced.
On the night of 3 January 1935, lightning caused severe structural damage. Parts of the tower fell onto nearby houses, fragments travelled a considerable distance, wooden floors inside the tower collapsed, and several bells were destroyed. A large stone broke through the apse vault and damaged the church interior. The tower was encased for safety, and the largest bell was temporarily forbidden to ring.
The Bevilacqua firm of Minervino Murge carried out repairs in 1939. The damaged bell was recast, retaining its original 1615 inscription but adding a record of its destruction by lightning on 3 January 1935 and its recasting in 1939. A lightning conductor was installed during the work.
Until the 1940s, five bells sounded the notes Fa, Mi, Re, Do, and Si. The Fa bell, made in 1605, weighed 95 kilograms and bore the appeal “From lightning and storm, deliver us, Lord.” The Mi bell of 1615 weighed 110 kilograms.
The largest was the Si bell of 1637. It weighed 10 quintals and measured 110 centimetres in both diameter and height. Its decoration included the town arms, an image of Our Lady of Grace, Saint Roch, and a possibly donor-related family emblem. It also carried a Latin inscription, the name of its maker Donato Franca Detossocia, and the names of King Philip III and the mayor, Tommaso Zazzorin.
The Re bell dates from 1751, weighs 160 kilograms, and has a diameter of 62 centimetres. It bears an image, a lizard, and the inscription “Saint Mary, pray for us – AD 1751.” It is placed on the highest level of the tower. The Do bell was made in 1828 and bore an inscription dedicated to the Annunciation.
During the Second World War, three of the five bells were requisitioned for military purposes and removed on 27 February 1943. The Si and Re bells remained, while the others were taken to the Giustozzi foundry and broken up. In July 1946 their fragments were formed into a new bell weighing 175 kilograms. Installed on 20 December that year, it also sounded Re and therefore duplicated one of the surviving bells.
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