Biseglie

BISEGLIE. - City in the province of Bari, with a small port on the Adriatic. In the Byzantine age, not before the 7th century, it was erected into a diocese. According to Ughelli (VII, 584) a bishop of B. would have been present at the Council of Nicaea of 787. From documents the bishops Mercurius (1059), John (1071) and Amandus (1182) are also known; at the time of Bishop Bisanzio (1220) St. Francis of Assisi came to B., where he established the convent called della Nunziata, later destroyed. The diocese was suppressed by Pius VII with a bull of 27 June 1818 and united in perpetuity to the archdiocese of Trani.

A legend (BHL, 5792) gives as discovered in 1167 in B. the relics of the martyrs Maurus, Pantaleemon and Sergius. The Maurus counted by Ughelli (VII, 935) among the martyrs of the Trajanic age is pure legend; perhaps these are relics of the Maurus of Fondi or of the bishop of Parenzo; Pantaleemon may be the venerated martyr of Nicomedia, commemorated on 27 July in the marble calendar of Naples (Martyr. Hieronymianum, p. 399); Sergius is perhaps the martyr of Syria of 7 Oct. 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 made of it a county. Count Peter II surrounded it with walls and towers, of which traces remain. The Swabians built there a castle 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, at the latter's death, to the direct dependence of the realm.

Enrico Josi

ART

Tradition holds that the church of St. Adon, built around the middle of the 11th century, is the work of Norman knights who dedicated it to the saint of Rouen. The facade, with a gable, is adorned with a small statue of the saint and a rose window flanked by four Romanesque lions. In the interior, disfigured by Baroque ornaments, there is a baptismal font of the 12th century with high reliefs depicting Christ blessing and the symbols of the Evangelists.

In 1073 the Norman count Peter founded the Cathedral which, transformed in Baroque style, preserves the sculpted main portal and a triple band of leafy branches with a protome supported by griffins on marble columns with acanthus-leaf capitals stirred by the wind.

The church of St. Margaret, founded in 1197 by Folco, imperial judge, remained free of alterations. It has a Greek-cross plan with a central dome on pendentives and a semicircular apse. The dome, square on the outside, is covered by a pyramidal roof. The gable facade, with smooth facing, is decorated at the top with small hanging arches and a small rose window. The same motif is repeated on the other three sides. Against the left side are placed the tombs of the Falcone family from the end of the 13th century, the work of Anserano da Trani, and of Pietro Facitolo da Bari. In the church of St. Margaret is preserved a diptych of the 1200s 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, likewise of the 1200s and of Byzantine inspiration, with the Madonna and Child.

A 15th-century Madonna crowned by Angels, painted on panel with a gold ground, is in the church of St. Matthew. In 1528 Palvisino da Putignano, a belated artist, painted for the church of St. Louis the panel with a lunette showing the Madonna enthroned with the Child between Sts. Francis and Anthony and the Eternal Father blessing. In St. Mary of Giano, in the territory of B., there is a fresco of the 14th century, depicting St. James among scenes of his life, of Tuscan influence.

To the Cathedral there came from the sanctuary of St. Mary of the Miracles of Andria, at the time of the suppression of the religious orders, a 17th-century choir rich in carvings. There is preserved an illuminated evangeliary of the 11th century; three illuminated antiphonaries, a gift of the Angevins, are in St. Adon.

Maria Luceri