San Martino Church

The church was built by the dean Isidoro Chirulli between 1747 and 1763 and it was consecrated in 1775.

Façade
Giovanni Mariani (1673-1747)’s painting.
On the façade, in the lower part, there are four niches with the Saints: Pietro, Paolo, Giuseppe and Giovanni Battista.
Above, there are the Saints Martina and Comasia.
There is a wonderful high-relief group with S.Martin cutting the cloak of the poor man.It probably was made by a local sculptor called Angelo Micheli.

Counter façade
There is a big latin inscription reminding the solemn confirmation of the temple as Eminent Basilica, obtained by the Archibishop of Taranto, Mons. Blundo, in 1842.
Above: Marcello Avenali’s glass wondow (1956) showing the miraculous release of Martina Franca from the Cappelletti’s siege in 1529.

Baptistery
It was commissioned by the Abbot Tommaso Innico Caracciolo and it was realized by the napolitan sculptor Crescenzo Trinchese from a drawing of G.B.Battista Catalano. Trinchese also carved the wonderful marble group of the Baptism of Christ (above). The little gate with the Caracciolo’s symbol was made by napolitan brass workers. All was built in around 1773.

Holy water stoups
They are precious works by napolitan marble workers or maybe attibutable to Crescenzo Trinchese, made during the second half of the XVIII cent.
Two marble metopes here are very interesting: one shows Moses letting the water drop by a stone and the other shows S.Martin making it rain.

Pulpit
It was made by Domenico Semeraro (1790-1879), a worker in ebony, and, in its strict geometrical and decorative layout, it represents one of the last great examples of inlay art in Martina Franca.It was made around 1850. In the centre of the balustrade there is Blundo Archibishop’s symbol.

Nave- Left side
S.Girolamo Emiliani’s altar.
This altar was built in 1775, for the will of Maria Idria Miani.
Painting by an anonymous artist in which the Virgin appears to the Saint.
*Nativity, or S.Joseph’s altar.
Big tempera of the Sheperds’Adoration, maybe made by De Mauro. The sculptures of the stone crib, coming from the Colleggiate church, belong to the school of Pietro da Putignano (XVI cent)

Nave- Right side
S.Crucifix altar.
Wood statue of the second half of the XVIII century, attributable to Riccardo Brudaglio, a sculputure of Puglia.
Our Lady of Sorrows’altar.
Built in 1784, it was mainly rebuilt in the first half of the XIX cent. In 1882 P.A.Casavola replaced an old painting of Our Lady of Sorrows with this statue.
On the left side of the Chapel: grave slab of the Archibishop of Brindisi Nicola Margiotta (1889-1976), born in Martina Franca.
 

High altar It was commissioned by the patron Pietro Simeone in 1773. It is a wonderful work made of polychrome marbles: it comes from roman workshops similar to the works of Filippo Della Valle and Pietro Bracci. You should also notice the two lateral statues representing Charity and Abundance.
*Central niche S.Martin’s golden limestone statue, made around the beginning of the XIV century.There are some French gothic elements similar to those of some relieves of Chartres gothic cathedral. The statue comes from the old Colleggiate church.

Holy Sacrament Chapel,or Cappellone

It is a smart old baroque architecture, made in 1784 because of the will of the Capitolo.The walls are adorned by polychrome marble stuccos. In the dome ribs there are the four Evangelists, a work made by Domenico Carella in 1785 and recently restored. This is the Adoration chapel.

High altar
A polychrome marble structure made by the marble worker Raimondo Belli in 1802. It represents a smart example of a change in the local taste, from late baroque to neoclassical style.

*The Last Supper
It probably is the last great painting of Domenico Carella, signed “Dominicus Carella senior fecit 1804”.The recent restoration underlines the strenght of the colours used and of the whole composition of the latest Carella’s work, nostalgically reminding the beloved venetian painters of the XVI cent., such as Veronese.

On both sides of the altar, there are two big polychrome glass windows made by Marcello Avenali, describing the Eucharist Institution, from 1956.
*Cappellone over-arch

A big altar- piece showing the Descent of the Holy Spirit: oil painting from the second half of the XVIII cent., attributable to Domenico Carella.
*Cappellone entrance (left side) alms-box

It is an interesting holy vessel object made of metal, that in the upper part holds an oil painting of the Deposition from the Cross, signed and dated by the local painter Giovanni Cairoli in 1853.

7-30-12.30 - 16.30-23.00

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