Description
Piazza Duomo is the religious heart of Brindisi's old town, bringing together some of its most important monuments in just a few yards. Facing this small space are the cathedral, the Baroque Seminary palace and the medieval loggia that serves as the entrance to the archaeological museum.
The most striking side is that of the Duomo, the Norman cathedral consecrated by Pope Urban II in 1089 and rebuilt after the earthquake of 1743. It holds the relics of Saint Theodore of Amasea, the city's patron saint, and fragments of a mosaic floor from 1178. High up, on the outside of the right apse, an inscription probably names the architect who built the medieval church.
Next to it stretches the Seminary palace, finished in 1720 to a design by Mauro Manieri of Lecce. On the upper-floor balcony stand eight statues representing the disciplines of learning: mathematics, oratory, ethics, theology, philosophy, law, poetics and harmony.
The palace is considered the finest example of Baroque in Brindisi. To decorate it, the white marble and the doors of the Basilica of San Leucio, by then destroyed, were reused. Today it houses the seminary, the Archbishop's Library and the archbishop's residence.
On the square, the two Gothic arches of the Portico of the Knights Templar lead into the Ribezzo Archaeological Museum, opened in 1958. The highlight is the Punta del Serrone bronzes, statues found in the sea during a dive in 1992, but there are also Messapian and Greek vases, inscriptions and Roman statues.
A few steps farther on, the loggia of Palazzo Balsamo juts out over the street with its carved 14th-century corbels.
For centuries the square saw crusaders and pilgrims pass through on their way to the Holy Land, who set sail from Brindisi. In the cathedral, on November 9, 1225, Emperor Frederick II married Isabella of Brienne, Queen of Jerusalem, who was just thirteen.
The most striking side is that of the Duomo, the Norman cathedral consecrated by Pope Urban II in 1089 and rebuilt after the earthquake of 1743. It holds the relics of Saint Theodore of Amasea, the city's patron saint, and fragments of a mosaic floor from 1178. High up, on the outside of the right apse, an inscription probably names the architect who built the medieval church.
Next to it stretches the Seminary palace, finished in 1720 to a design by Mauro Manieri of Lecce. On the upper-floor balcony stand eight statues representing the disciplines of learning: mathematics, oratory, ethics, theology, philosophy, law, poetics and harmony.
The palace is considered the finest example of Baroque in Brindisi. To decorate it, the white marble and the doors of the Basilica of San Leucio, by then destroyed, were reused. Today it houses the seminary, the Archbishop's Library and the archbishop's residence.
On the square, the two Gothic arches of the Portico of the Knights Templar lead into the Ribezzo Archaeological Museum, opened in 1958. The highlight is the Punta del Serrone bronzes, statues found in the sea during a dive in 1992, but there are also Messapian and Greek vases, inscriptions and Roman statues.
A few steps farther on, the loggia of Palazzo Balsamo juts out over the street with its carved 14th-century corbels.
For centuries the square saw crusaders and pilgrims pass through on their way to the Holy Land, who set sail from Brindisi. In the cathedral, on November 9, 1225, Emperor Frederick II married Isabella of Brienne, Queen of Jerusalem, who was just thirteen.