BISCEGLIE. – A city in the province of Bari, with a small port on the Adriatic. In the Byzantine age, not before the 7th century, it was elevated to the status of a diocese. According to Ughelli (VII, 584), a bishop of B. would have been present at the Council of Nicaea in 787. Documents also record the bishops Mercurio (1059), Giovanni (1071), and Amando (1182); at the time of Bishop Bisanzio (1220), St. Francis of Assisi came to B. and established there the convent known as the Nunziata, later destroyed. The diocese was suppressed by Pius VII with a bull dated 27 June 1818 and permanently united to the archdiocese of Trani.
A legend (BHL, 5792) claims that in 1167 the relics of the martyrs Mauro, Pantaleomene, and Sergio were discovered in B. The Mauro mentioned by Ughelli (VII, 935) among the martyrs of Trajanic times is pure legend; perhaps it refers to the relics of Mauro of Fondi or the bishop of Parenzo. Pantaleomene may be the venerated martyr of Nicomedia, commemorated on 27 July in the Marble Calendar of Naples (Martyrologium Hieronymianum, p. 399); Sergio may be the martyr of Syria on 7 October. B. was devastated by the Goths, the Lombards, and the Saracens; at the end of the 11th century it was occupied by Robert Guiscard, who formed it into a county. Count Pietro II surrounded it with walls and towers, of which vestiges remain. The Swabians built a castle there, enlarged by the Angevins. Robert of Anjou granted it in lordship to Amelio del Balzo; in 1486, together with Corato, it became a duchy and was ceded to Alfonso of Aragon, returning in 1513, after his death, to the direct dependence of the kingdom.
ART – It is traditionally held that the church of S. Adone, built around the mid-11th century, was the work of Norman knights who dedicated it to the saint of Rouen. The façade, with a pointed gable, is adorned with a small statue of the saint and a rose window flanked by four Romanesque lions. Inside, altered by Baroque ornamentation, is a 12th-century baptismal font with high-reliefs depicting the blessing Christ and the symbols of the Evangelists.
In 1073 the Norman Count Pietro founded the Cathedral, which, transformed in Baroque style, preserves the main portal carved with a triple band of vine scrolls, a prothyrum supported by griffins on marble columns with acanthus-leaf capitals stirred by the wind.
The church of S. Margherita, founded in 1197 by Folco, imperial judge, remained untouched by later remodelling. It has a Greek-cross plan with a central dome on pendentives and a semicircular apse. The dome, square on the exterior, is covered by a pyramidal roof. The façade, with a pointed gable and smooth facing, is decorated at the top by hanging arches and a small rose window; the same motif is repeated on the other three sides. On the left flank are attached the tombs of the Falcone family from the late 13th century, works by Anserano da Trani, and of Pietro Facitolo da Bari. In the church of S. Margherita is preserved a 1200 diptych with the saint and St. Nicholas, divided into compartments in the Byzantine manner with scenes from the lives of the two saints, and an icon, also from 1200 and of Byzantine inspiration, depicting the Madonna and Child.
A 15th-century Madonna crowned by angels, painted on a gold-ground panel, is in the church of S. Matteo. In 1528 Palvisino da Putignano, a belated artist, painted for the church of S. Luigi the lunette panel with the Madonna in majesty with the Christ Child between Sts. Francis and Anthony and the blessing Eternal Father. In S. Maria di Giano, in the countryside of B., is a 14th-century fresco depicting St. James amid narrative scenes, of Tuscan influence.
The Cathedral received from the sanctuary of S. Maria dei Miracoli of Andria, at the time of the suppression of religious orders, a 17th-century choir rich in inlays. It preserves a 11th-century illuminated gospel book; three illuminated antiphonaries, gifts of the Angevins, are in S. Adone.