Bitonto and Altamura Cathedrals

Friday and Saturday were cloudy and rainy and we spent most of the time at the hotel, but we did manage to squeeze two more Puglian cathedrals in between the raindrops.

Friday: Rain in Bitonto

Friday was especially rainy so we visited Bitonto, the cathedral with the most interior interest, in the hopes it would be open. Happily it was, but it's a shame we didn't have better weather as the exterior is really impressive too. It's one of the largest of the Puglian Cathedrals and has an abundance of carvings.





We eventually found a door that was open, and got to explore not only the fine interior of the cathedral but also the crypt and excavations below. The crypt was locked, but when I asked a man straightening up the altar if there was a key, he made a call on his cell phone and moments later the doors opened from the inside! It turned out there was already an English tour group down there, so it was good timing. And it was nice to hear some English spoken, which was fairly rare in Puglia.


Capital in the crypt

There has been a church on this site in Bitonto since the 5th century and the foundations of the earliest one have been recently uncovered. They are very nicely displayed along with other finds from the cathedral, all accompanied by descriptive signs in Italian, English and German.


Excavations


Very well-preserved medieval mosaic of a griffin

Saturday: Altamura

Altamura is a fairly large city with a nice enough old town and Romanesque cathedral. The main highlight of the cathedral is the portal, which dates from the 1200s. It stuffed full of wonderful detailed carvings of Bible stories.


Old Town


Cathedral


The Last Supper


The Flight into Egypt (Mary and the baby Jesus on a donkey)

There was a large group of Italians outside the cathedral on a guided tour, and the leader helpfully told me the church would open in about 30 minutes. Unfortunately, the inside is still fully Baroque (thankfully most other Puglian cathedrals have been stripped back to the original Romanesque form) and not very interesting.


On the way back to our hotel we stopped at Ruvo di Puglia's cathedral again, boldly parking on the marble pavement right in front of it. This time it was open! It was very cool inside, with tall Romanesque arches, carved capitals and fragments of medieval frescoes.