Chiesa del Carmine

Built beside the castle walls in the early seventeenth century, Conversano's Chiesa del Carmine is a compact Baroque church with a richly decorated interior. Its single hall holds pale Ostuni-stone altars, Caravaggesque paintings and a gilded wooden high altar centred on a fresco of the Madonna del Carmine by Andrea Malinconico.

Why it matters

The church preserves the history of the Discalced Carmelites in Conversano. Their presence in the county is documented by 1617, and the church and convent grew into an important monastic foundation supported by the Acquaviva d'Aragona family. Today the building remains a parish church, part of the town's living religious landscape.

What to notice

The plain façade contrasts with the ornament inside. A broad hall beneath a lunette barrel vault is decorated with stucco friezes, while chapels along the walls hold altars carved in pale Ostuni stone. Four seventeenth-century canvases depict San Giovanni Battista, San Sebastiano, the Annunciation and the Madonna di Loreto. The gilded wooden high altar frames Malinconico's Madonna del Carmine fresco; its base bears the arms of both the Acquaviva family and the Carmelite Order.

Context and history

The church and convent were built in the first decades of the seventeenth century beside the castle, partly replacing an older rural church dedicated to San Leonardo. The Filomarino family financed a complete rebuilding, finished in 1662. A portrait of Isabella Filomarino della Rocca in Carmelite habit recalls the family's patronage. The convent's presence is recorded in a 1617 notarial deed drawn up in its cloister.