Cappella Neogotica - Chiesa di San Francesco di Paola al Borgo

Inside the atrium of Palazzo Cecinato on Taranto's Via Cavour, the Neogothic Chapel of San Francesco di Paola al Borgo is a small and distinctive place of worship. Angelo Cecinato built it between 1881 and 1898 in thanksgiving after surviving a fall into a well; it was declared a public church in 1899.

Why it matters

As the Borgo Umbertino expanded, older buildings disappeared beneath the new quarter. The chapel's sacristy was salvaged from a rural chapel dedicated to San Girolamo, preserving a trace of structures otherwise lost. Its late nineteenth-century Neogothic style is unusual in southern Italy. In 1932 Archbishop Giuseppe Blandamura called it the “Piccolo Duomo di Milano,” a nickname that has endured.

What to notice

The façade has two lateral spires, a central rose window and a portal decorated with arabesque patterns. Repeated “Charitas” inscriptions run through the ornament. Inside, lace-like stucco surrounds the altar niches. Several statues once displayed in the niches and on the façade have disappeared. A Madonna Bambina painting is preserved in the sacristy.

Context and history

Cecinato built the chapel in the atrium of his palace, engaging master builders Domenico Fago and Aldo Bari. Archbishop Pietro Alfonso Jorio declared it a public church on 2 February 1899. After abandonment in the 1940s, the chapel was rediscovered in 2015 and reopened later that year; restoration followed. A fragment of a friar's habit was found embedded in the tuff during façade work in 2019.