Chiesa Madre di Sant'Andrea Apostolo

Presicce's Mother Church of Sant'Andrea Apostolo stands on Piazza del Popolo, rebuilt in Baroque form after the earthquake of 1743. Its Renaissance bell tower survived from the earlier church, while the interior brings together stuccoed altars, marble furnishings and the memory of the town's patron saint.

Why it matters

Sant'Andrea is Presicce's principal church and the setting for the town's celebrations of its patron on 29 and 30 November. The feast includes the focareddha bonfire and the rhythm of Lu Tamburreddhu. Outside, the early eighteenth-century Bartilotti column rises before the church with a statue of Saint Andrew.

What to notice

The church has a Latin-cross plan and a single nave lined by eight stucco-framed side altars. At the high altar, polychrome marble reflects the Neapolitan school. The holy-water fonts are marble gifts from King Francesco I of the Two Sicilies, arranged through the mediation of Presicce-born marchese Michele Arditi. An attached chapel, dated 1575 on its architrave, is known as the chapel of the dead; underground tombs lie beneath it. The sixteenth-century bell tower is a surviving element of the earlier church, and the Bartilotti column displays four female figures representing the cardinal virtues beneath the saint.

Context and history

The Nardò earthquake of 24 February 1743 destroyed the earlier parish church. The community rebuilt the present church in the late eighteenth century: accounts date the work from 1776 or 1778 through 1781. The reconstruction retained and incorporated the Renaissance bell tower, creating the building's distinctive combination of periods. Marble furnishings were added in the eighteenth century through Arditi's mediation at the Bourbon court. The church remains Presicce's liturgical centre.