Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta

Ostuni Cathedral crowns the white city's uphill centre with a late Gothic façade and a large decorated rose window. Its exterior contrasts with the Baroque interior, shaped by centuries as the seat of the diocese of Ostuni and, since 1986, a co-cathedral.

Why it matters

The cathedral stands at the highest point of Ostuni's historic centre. It served the ancient diocese of Ostuni until that see was united with the Archdiocese of Brindisi-Ostuni. The building combines a Gothic façade with later interior decoration and holds works accumulated over centuries.

What to notice

Three pointed portals rise beneath the decorated rose window. The central portal carries a bas-relief of the Madonna and Child in glory. Inside, a Latin-cross plan with three naves leads to a Baroque interior with a painted ceiling and side chapels. A wooden altar from 1734, bearing busts of Saints Oronzo, Biagio and Agostino, stands at the end of the left aisle; a carved walnut choir occupies the apse. Near the entrance, a column survives from an earlier church.

Context and history

The cathedral belongs to Ostuni's fifteenth-century rebuilding under Aragonese influence. Earlier religious buildings stood on the site, and part of the present church incorporates their fabric. The diocese of Ostuni is documented at least from 1071, when Bishop Datto appears in records. Pope Pius VII suppressed the diocese in 1818 and joined its territory to Brindisi; he restored it in 1821 under the administration of the archbishops of Brindisi. On 30 September 1986, the decree Instantibus votis united the two sees in plena unione, creating the Archdiocese of Brindisi-Ostuni and making Santa Maria Assunta a co-cathedral. The interior's Baroque furnishings reflect the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.