Description
The Church of Santa Lucia, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is one of the oldest parishes in Brindisi, in the old town. Outside it is plain, with a gabled facade; inside it keeps medieval frescoes and, beneath the floor, a painted crypt from the early 13th century.
The interior was once entirely frescoed. Large fragments from the 13th and 14th centuries remain: a Saint Peter Martyr with scenes from his life and several full-length saints, many of them hard to make out because of the hammer blows dealt to the plaster.
On the altars are two paintings to look for: the canvas of the Martyrdom of Saint Lucy, painted by Giovanni Scatigno in 1770, and the 16th-century polyptych of the Madonna del Dolce Canto.
The most evocative part is the crypt, from the first years of the 13th century. Four columns with fine Corinthian capitals divide it into three small naves, and here too the walls are covered with frescoes.
Among the figures painted in the crypt are Saint Nicholas, Saint Blaise, Mary Magdalene with her jar of ointment and Saint Peter the Apostle. A Virgin Kyriotissa shows the influence of Eastern art, a sign of Brindisi's ties with the Byzantine world.
Originally a convent of penitent nuns stood next to the church; they were called “white” for the color of their habit. They belonged to the Order of Santa Maria di Valleverde, came from Acri, and a document already mentions them in 1248.
The complex probably dates from the time of Frederick II. In the 15th and 16th centuries the church was renovated with the arches that now divide it into three naves and with the side altars; of the convent, on the other hand, no trace remains.
In the Middle Ages the area around the church formed the district of San Toma, one of the three “pittachi” into which the city was divided.
The interior was once entirely frescoed. Large fragments from the 13th and 14th centuries remain: a Saint Peter Martyr with scenes from his life and several full-length saints, many of them hard to make out because of the hammer blows dealt to the plaster.
On the altars are two paintings to look for: the canvas of the Martyrdom of Saint Lucy, painted by Giovanni Scatigno in 1770, and the 16th-century polyptych of the Madonna del Dolce Canto.
The most evocative part is the crypt, from the first years of the 13th century. Four columns with fine Corinthian capitals divide it into three small naves, and here too the walls are covered with frescoes.
Among the figures painted in the crypt are Saint Nicholas, Saint Blaise, Mary Magdalene with her jar of ointment and Saint Peter the Apostle. A Virgin Kyriotissa shows the influence of Eastern art, a sign of Brindisi's ties with the Byzantine world.
Originally a convent of penitent nuns stood next to the church; they were called “white” for the color of their habit. They belonged to the Order of Santa Maria di Valleverde, came from Acri, and a document already mentions them in 1248.
The complex probably dates from the time of Frederick II. In the 15th and 16th centuries the church was renovated with the arches that now divide it into three naves and with the side altars; of the convent, on the other hand, no trace remains.
In the Middle Ages the area around the church formed the district of San Toma, one of the three “pittachi” into which the city was divided.