2015-05-15 20:23:10
The Chapel of Our Lady of Itri presents a simple neoclassical facade consisting of a portal with tympanum and central two-mullioned window. The interior has a single room with an altar in Leccese stone, behind which a small door allows access to the Byzantine church, with a rectangular plan, dedicated to St. Nicholas. The church, entirely frescoed, presents six overlapping phases on the walls from which it is possible to gather information about the style and the different periods in which the frescoes were made. At the foot of the east wall is a depiction of Our Lady of Itri. A small Baroque altar, of the 17th century, holds the statues of Mary, of an unknown saint, probably St. Irene, and of St. Marina. At its left is a niche that was intended as prosthesis, the altar of the Orthodox liturgy. On the northern wall, a triptych with St. Nicholas in pontifical robes blessing the Greek is at the center, with two different Marian representations on both sides: one with his hands raised and with the child Christ on his knees, blessing the Greek with his left hand while the right hand holds the scriptures; the other side shows him gently covering the child Christ, who is on his knees, with a veil of transparent silk. On the opposite wall, a second entrance is camouflaged among dozens of sixteenth-century saints among which a particular figure stands out, with a turban, brown hair, identified with Cesarea, the Salentine saint who had to flee from his father who wanted to abuse her and take refuge in a cave inhabited by doves. This would be the oldest image of the Salentine saint. The frescoes of this saint and of others such as Saints Cosma and Damiano, Saint Lucia, Saint Nicola e Saint Antonio Abate seem to have been made by a certain Francesco of Arezzo who worked in the Orsinian Basilica of Santa Caterina in Galatina and in the church of Santo Stefano in Soleto. In the pavement, a small crypt is visible with the remains of the medieval cemetery that once existed in every religious building. The bones were recovered and placed in crates after the restoration of the church.
Vittorio Emanuele, Nociglia