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Bitetto ist known for the presence of the remains of Blessed Giacomo , a lay friar who died in the odor of sanctity, whose body has remained intact over the centuries. The main monument of the town, the church of San Michele Arcangelo is one of the purest examples of Apulian Romanesque . The epigraph near the portal reveals that the facade was built in 1335 by Mastro Lillo da Barletta on commission from Bishop Bonocore, who wanted to rebuild the city temple on the site of an older cathedral. Bitetto had in fact been a diocesan seat since the 11th century . Oriented according to ancient custom with the presbytery to the east, the church has a severe façade divided into three parts by pilasters and equipped with a large archivolted rose window . Of the three portals, the central one is characterized by a rich sculptural apparatus: two stone lions, crouched on mighty corbels, support columns with capitals with vegetal motifs that support a lunette with bas-reliefs of Christ and the twelve Apostles. The external jambs instead present scenes from the New Testament. The interior, which was heavily plastered in the eighteenth century and was restored to its original Romanesque style in 1959 , is divided into three naves by triple-order wall partitions, where the double-arched arches are surmounted by false matronei and higher up by single-lancet windows. The transept has three apses according to the stylistic features of Apulian Romanesque. The fourteenth-century body is flanked on both sides by two eighteenth-century chapels, that of Purgatory (on the left) and that of the Blessed Sacrament (on the right). Outside, the bell tower, also dating back to the eighteenth century, rests on the Romanesque façade with a typical gabled structure.

The gate owes its name to the underground cisterns used to collect rainwater. For a long time it was one of the main accesses to the old, fortified city, where most of the population lived until the early 18th century.

Gateway to the village of Bitetto

The church of San Michele Arcangelo is the cathedral of Bitetto. It was built in the 11th century and is in the Apulian Romanesque style

From here the main road artery of the medieval city opens, namely via Porta Piscina, which connects said urban access to the Cathedral. The toponyms of the door and of the homonymous street derive from the existence in the immediate suburb outside of Moenia of some underground cisterns, used for the collection of rainwater. The city gate has the high plinth made with Trani stone ashlars, the round archway, the ring of which is highlighted by a crown of serrated bosses and the emphasis on the Bolognino key. Above the fornix there is an epigraph and two heraldic coats of arms with the typical Angevin shield with an inverted ogive. The upper floor has a battlements with quadrangular teeth, a reminder of the Guelph factio.

Imposing and majestic, the Bitetto Cathedral of San Michele Arcangelo was built in 1335 by Master Lillo da Barletta. The exterior is breathtaking. In fact, the central portal features two stone lions, capitals with plant motifs, and a lunette with bas-reliefs of Christ and the Twelve Apostles. The exterior jambs feature scenes from the New Testament. Definitely breathtaking! At the center of the façade is a large stone rose window in Romanesque style. Next to the church façade, also in Apulian Romanesque style, stands the 18th-century bell tower.

The layout of the Bitetto cathedral is defined by the traditional Latin cross oriented basilica plan with an extradosal transept with respect to the long sides and intrados apses. The façade suggests the internal tripartite division: the elevation development, the slope of the salient points, the location of the three access portals, however declined according to already Gothic styles, imitate the Cathedral of Bitonto with philological observance. The façade is modeled on this model: divided into salient parts by pilasters, it is divided into two registers. If the morphology of the façade emulates the nearby Romanesque iconographic source, the portals are configured as precious manifestations of the French Gothic culture, radiated in Puglia through the presence of the Angevins.

Cathedral