Convento di San Domenico Maggiore

Above the western edge of Taranto's old island, the Church and Convent of San Domenico Maggiore rise over the remains of a Greek sanctuary. The church was begun in 1302 and reshaped in the eighteenth century; the complex preserves Angevin architecture, a medieval cloister and ancient foundations below.

Why it matters

The site layers several histories. A monastery of San Pietro Imperiale is attested by the late ninth century, and in 1080 Robert Guiscard granted the Taranto priory to the Benedictines of Montecassino. The church that stands today was begun in 1302, according to the inscription above its portal. The Dominicans later gave the complex its current name. Excavations beneath the cloister exposed foundations of a Greek sanctuary dating to the sixth century BC, renewed in the following century and later adapted for Christian worship.

What to notice

A monumental eighteenth-century staircase climbs to the gabled façade, whose pointed portal and rose window retain a fourteenth-century profile. On the garden side, two Angevin mullioned windows have capitals carved with human and animal figures. Roman blocks from the first century BC were reused as their jambs. In the garden, two carparo sarcophagi and faint traces of religious painting survive. Beneath the northern cloister wing, dry-laid carparo foundations of the Greek temple rise more than five metres; the ancient cella walls were later adapted for Christian use.

Context and history

Dominicans occupied the complex from the first half of the fourteenth century, and the convent took shape around the middle of that century. Confraternities furnished side altars between 1571 and 1670, followed by a painted wooden ceiling in 1717. After the order was suppressed, the building served military purposes in the nineteenth century. The ceiling collapsed on Christmas night 1964 and was replaced with plain wooden trusses. The church remains part of Taranto's Holy Week traditions, and the complex now houses offices of the archaeological superintendency.