The Pre-Classical Civilization of Southern Murgia Museum and The Archaeological and Natural Park of Santa Maria di Agnano of Ostuni

Type:

Luoghi della cultura; Ente/Istituzione

Category:

Archaeology museums

The Museum of Ostuni was opened to the public on May 14th, 1989 in the former Carmelite monastery of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi, with its adjacent church of San Vito Martire, where prehistoric and protohistoric finds discovered in archaeological excavations carried out since 1980 in the territory of Ostuni, are displayed. Currently, the new rooms exhibit medieval and modern discoveries. The church of San Vito Martire, also known as "Monacelle", was built between 1750 and 1752 and was designed by an anonymous Neapolitan engineer. It was built by Ostuni’s workers in order to replace an earlier medieval church of San Vito effected by the earthquake of 1743. The facade highlights, in its lines, the beginning of the season of the Rococo style in Ostuni which ran until the end of the eighteenth century. The interior has a single nave, five stone altars of great artistic value and two choruses, always supported by two stone arches with the heads of cherubs. Four paintings by artists from Naples and Rome adorn the altars. In addition to paintings and stone altars, there are also rich wood furnishings, such as the 8th century organ and the pulpit, the interior doors and the front door, windows and grates that adorn the ‘matroneo’ of the 18th century.